Returned
by xxxXXxEllexXXxxx
Summary: Five years ago, Troy and Gabriella disappeared without a trace. What are they up to now? Where have they been? And most importantly what happened? These are all questions that the gang want answered. Troyella, Chaylor, Zekepay and Jelsi.
1. Chapter 1

**Returned**

**Hey guys I know that I haven't updated Need You More Than Ever for a while but it should be updated tomorrow or the day after. Anyway in the mean time I was on youtube earlier and for some reason had the sudden idea to write this story, so here I am writing at one in the morning, trying to get this down on paper before I forget it, read it and tell me what you think.**

**Chapter 1**

The gang were wandering through the park slowly, each of them lost in their own memories, this was a very special day for them, a day that none of them would ever forget, especially as long as they each had each other, to keep the memories alive and fresh.

August 27th.

The last day that they ever saw two of their best friends alive.

"I can't believe that it's been four years since Troy and Gabby disappeared," Kelsi said softly as she shook her head, trying to get rid of her tears. Jason however looked at his wife and took her hand, gently giving it a squeeze, as he smiled reassuringly at her, she gave him a small smile back before roaming her eyes over the rest of the gang.

They had all changed a lot since high school, although some things were still the same. The boys were still crazy about basketball and would try to get in a game as often as possible, Ryan included, as it turned out once he started to become his own person, and not follow Sharpay the whole time that he was actually a very good basketballer, and had even secured a place on the team for their senior year. The girls however still loved shopping, and spending the guys' money at any given opportunity.

Kelsi's eyes landed on Sharpay. Probably the one who had changed the most out of all of them. After the summer at Lava Springs, Sharpay had apologised to the Wildcats and had quickly became a vital member of the group, her strongest friendship, however surprising as it was, was with Gabriella, which was why Sharpay took the news that their best friends' had disappeared the worst, locking herself in her room for days and refusing to eat until the gang had staged an intervention. Now though, her life was starting to get back on track, she had completed college with a business degree, shocking everyone, and now she managed all of the finance and business part of her and Zeke's very successful bakery. She and Zeke were even living together in their own apartment and engaged to be married next spring.

Next, Kelsi's eyes landed on Zeke, who was holding tightly onto his fiancés hand, knowing how hard this day was for her. Zeke had ended up studying cookery while at U of A, and he now came up with all of the main recipes and was the head chef at his and Sharpay's bakery. He had finally managed to propose to Sharpay on her birthday back in May, after trying to find the best way to do it for the best part of six months.

Kelsi flicked her eyes away from the couple as Sharpay looked like she was about to cry again and her eyes landed on Ryan. Ryan had done well for himself since stepping out of Sharpay's shadow, although he was still single, he had had a few girlfriends, saying that he still hadn't found the one yet. After Troy figured out that Ryan wasn't going to try and steal Gabriella away from him, and rather looked at her like a little sister, the two had become fast friends, with Troy teaching Ryan some basketball tips and then getting him to try out for the team. However Ryan's love was always the theatre, so it was no surprise when that was what he majored in, eventually taking Ms. Darbus place as the drama teacher at East High, although a little less dramatic.

After studying Ryan for a while, Kelsi let her eyes find the Danforths'. Chad and Taylor had been married for about 11 months now and were loving every minute of it. The two of them had possibly had it the hardest when Troy and Gabriella disappeared, being their best friends. Chad blamed himself for months, not believing the others when they said that he had nothing to do with it, and Taylor just clammed up and refused to talk to anyone other than Chad for about 5 weeks. They had finally managed to get back on their feet though, and now Chad was a P.E. teacher at East High and was the assistant basketball coach to Jack Bolton, until he retired at the end of the school year, although Chad being Chad, was optimistic and looking forward to meeting his new boss in the fall. Taylor however had taken a slightly different path and had ended up being a kindergarten teacher at East Elementary, but she loved her job and Chad was lucky if she got home before he did most days.

Finally, Kelsi's eyes shifted upwards, as she looked to her own husband of 2 months. Jason had definitely changed from their schooldays, gone were the stupid questions, and instead he had changed into a very focused young man, who only opened his mouth to ask questions when it was something important. Surprising everyone, including Kelsi herself, Jason had ended up being a teacher himself, although he taught the second grade, along side Taylor at East Elementary.

As for Kelsi, she didn't think that she'd changed much, although her friends would beg to differ. Since high school, Kelsi had become a lot less fearful of voicing her opinion and would now gladly stand up for what she believed in and argue with whoever stood in her way. The petite brunette had always stayed true to herself though and had found her way back to her one true love, music. Kelsi was now the music teacher at East High, and a long with Ryan, helped the students to compose and perform any musicals that the school did, of course with the whole gang watching and cheering them on.

After losing two of their most precious members, the two people that had brought them all together in the first place, the gang had become a lot closer and were all extremely protective of the rest. They made sure that they got together at least once a week, but they all lived in the same building and worked together anyway, so that wasn't much of a problem.

"I wonder what they're doing now," Sharpay suddenly croaked out, startling Kelsi from her thoughts.

"Well personally, I think that they're going crazy from missing me so much and that they're starting to realise that they can't possibly live with out me," Chad boasted with a cheeky grin.

The others all rolled their eyes as Sharpay shouted at him and Taylor hit him over the back of the head, before they all burst into hysterical laughter, earning strange glances from people who were trying to enjoy the nice sunny afternoon in Albuquerque's most beautiful park.

"I think one thing's for sure though," Taylor mused as the gang turned to look at her, "wherever they are, the two of them are still together."

The rest of the gang smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Hey, how about we go back to ours and have some celebratory ice cream sundaes, in remembrance of the two people who brought us all together in the first place, cause if it wasn't for Troy and Gabster breaking the status quo, we would never have become friends, much less started to date," Zeke said smiling as his friends grinned back and they started a faster walk down towards Baylor's Bakeries.

The gang had picked up their pace from their slow stroll through the park, each eager to get to the ice cream. But Taylor wasn't looking where she was going, and tripped over a persons feet that were sticking out from where they were sitting on a park bench.

The person was immediately up off of the bench to help Taylor up.

"Oh my G-d," the person stuttered, "I' so sorry, I didn't mean to trip you up like that."

The gang froze right where they were. They would know that voice anywhere, that voice haunted each of them in their sleep on a nightly basis.

Taylor's head snapped up and her brown eyes connected with a pair of sapphire blue eyes.

"Troy…" she breathed out, as the young man's eyes widened, recognising her instantly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Returned**

**Hi guys, thanks for the reviews. Just a note about chapter one, where Kelsi says that it was four years later, it's supposed to be five years, just a little mistake. Anyway here's chapter two, read it and tell me what you think.**

**Chapter 2**

The gang and Troy stared at each other for the best part of five minutes, as if no one was exactly sure what to do now. Taylor was still in Troy's arms after he had helped her up from her fall.

Taylor took this time to study Troy. He may have been five years older, but to Taylor and the gang, 23 years old Troy Bolton had never looked better. The same ocean blue eyes shone through, if possible brighter than before and showing that he was just as happy, if not happier than ever. His shaggy brown hair still fell over his eyes, although the highlights were gone and his grey hat. Although Taylor was a married woman, she couldn't help but notice, and she knew that Sharpay and Kelsi were in the same boat too, from the way that they were staring at him, but Troy looked even better than his high school years in his grey t-shirt and black skinny jeans. **(Picture in profile.)** His style had definitely increased, from the usual sports attire and long sleeved tops that he would wear in high school.

Although a lot about him had stayed the same, Taylor realised that something was different, just from looking at him, Taylor could tell that Troy had become a lot more mature over the year that he had been gone, although what had caused this change in him remained a mystery to Taylor and the rest of the gang.

Chad suddenly couldn't take it anymore, realising that his best friend was back, he unexpectedly launched forwards, pushing his wife out of the way as he grabbed Troy into a massive bear hug. Troy looked stunned at first, but that expression was quickly replaced by a grin.

"Awww, I new you missed me really Chad, surprised that you could live without me," Troy laughed cockily, but in a good natured way, as the rest of the gang grinned, realising that Troy's sense of humour hadn't changed at all.

"Still cocky as ever then Bolton," Taylor said with a smile as she shoved Chad out of the way and seized Troy into a hug. Troy grinned as he held her in a tight hug.

"Good to see you to Tay-Tay," the other girls suddenly squealed and joined in the hug as the guys watched on, laughing as Troy tried to get out of the hug, squirming.

"Don't even think about it Bolton," Sharpay growled and Troy immediately stopped squirming and looked at the guys for help. They all shook their heads laughing at the predicament that Troy had found himself in.

"Don't look at us for help Troy, this is your punishment for disappearing on us for five years without so much as a phone call," Ryan stated, crossing his arms. Troy looked at them helplessly before huffing and allowing himself to be hugged by the girls, not that he had much choice in the matter.

A few minutes later, Troy managed to choke out, "girls I need to breath and I'm losing oxygen fast here, so please get off of me and I mean that in the nicest way possible." By this time Troy's face was bright red and the girls immediately released, watching him slowly return to his normal colour, each of them blushing furiously and mumbling a sorry.

Troy just laughed as he told them that he missed their bone crushing hugs and needed one after five years without them. He then turned to the guys and hugged each of them in turn before the gang sat down on and around the bench, each wondering where to start with the questions.

Jason decided to go first and as he looked at Troy, with almost pleading eyes he asked, "Troy," Troy turned to look at Jason and nodded to him to continue, "why did you and Gabby leave all those years ago, was it something that we did?"

Troy looked shocked before smiling, " I never thought that I'd hear a sensible question out of you Jason."

Kelsi frowned, "well it has been five years you know Troy we've all changed a lot in that time."

Troy nodded solemnly before continuing, "first of guys, it was nothing that any of you did and Ella and I would never want you to think that," all of the gang nodded and let out relieved sighs. "Secondly, I'm afraid I can't tell you why we left, at least not yet," he added seeing the hurt looks on their faces. "To tell you what went on, Ella deserves to be their too, I wouldn't feel right, just telling you by myself."

Sharpay's eyes suddenly zoomed in on Troy's wedding finger and she let out a gasp. Everyone's heads whipped round to look at her and Troy looked slightly panicked. "Don't worry Troy it's nothing that you just said," she started and Troy nodded slowly, looking confused. "It's just you're wearing a wedding ring and I was wondering…" she trailed of as the rest of the gang stared at his hand and Troy shifted uncomfortably. "AreyoumarriedtoBrie?" Sharpay let out in one big breath as the rest of the gang, Troy included, started laughing, before everyone turned pointedly to look at Troy.

Troy smiled, twiddling with his ring nervously, "I married the love of my life 3 ½ years ago now Shar," he smiled, "so in answer to your question yes Ella and I are married. Extremely happily as well I might add," he beamed as he looked around the rest of the group who were all grinning like maniacs.

Suddenly Zeke and Jason groaned as Chad and Ryan both laughed and held out their hands as they each received fifty dollars and their grins widened.

"You guys were betting on me and Ella?" Troy mused with a slight laugh.

The guys all nodded meekly and Chad proudly told Troy how he and Ryan had always believed that the two would be married when they returned. This earned each of the guys a slap around the back of their head from their wives/fiancé/sister.

Troy was now trying to contain his laughter and failing miserably as he choked out, "some things never change."

"Where is Gabby, Troy, is she hear?" Taylor asked, looking like a four year old on Christmas morning.

Troy laughed before replying, "she's trying to get the new house organised, we just moved here, but I got kicked out, apparently I was getting in the way and there was something else that needed sorting out anyway." He finished with a smile as the gang laughed.

"Sounds like Gabby," Kelsi laughed, before asking, "Why did you guys move back here? If you don't mind me asking of course." She finished blushing.

Troy smiled at her, "I don't mind at all Kelsi," he said laughing. "Actually I got the job as new P.E. teacher and basketball coach at East High and Gabby got a position as the new kindergarten teacher at the Elementary."

The gang's mouths were all wide open in shock.

"What?" Troy asked nervously.

"Well Troy," Sharpay started, "I'd like you to meet your assistant coach and the other male member of East High's P.E. staff Coach Danforth, East High's music teacher Mrs. Cross, East High's drama teacher Mr. Evans, one of East Elementary's second grade teachers Mr. Cross and lastly one of East Elementary's kindergarten teachers Mrs. Danforth."

Troy's mouth opened in shock before he laughed, "so we would have ended up meeting up anyway, damn its like fate really wants us all together isn't it."

The rest of the gang laughed before Ryan realised something.

"Troy," Troy looked at him again grinning, "what was the other thing that you said needed taking care of?"

Immediately the grin was wiped off of Troy's face and he started to stutter," well…umm…you see…" his arm reached around to the back of his neck as he looked at them all nervously.

"DADDY!" there came a sudden yell and instantly Troy stood up, his eyes scanning the surrounding area as the gang watched on bewildered. Troy's eyes found what they were looking for and a million dollar smile crept across his face as a little girl with long blonde hair that was tied up but still reached down past her shoulders came hurtling towards the waiting group.

Troy picked her up and spun her round as she reached them, planting a kiss to the top of her head.

"Hiya angel," he smiled as he put her down, and she giggled, straightening out her top as she looked at the people surrounding her.

"Wait for me, wait for me," there came a little cry of as another little girl came flying towards them, her black curls bouncing as she ran giggling loudly and attached herself to Troy's legs.

Troy smiled as he picked her up, "having fun at the park princess?" he asked as he kissed the top of her head and she pushed her hair out of her eyes with her small hands, before nodding, placing her thumb in her mouth, placing her head on Troy's shoulder and followed her sisters example by studying the people who were standing before her, clearly shocked.

Ryan studied the first little girl that had run up to them, she looked identical to the younger pictures that he had seen of Troy. She had long blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail cascading down her back. A pink straw hat covered her head, to protect her from the hot Albuquerque sun and she was wearing a three-quarter length white top, with a long green pinafore top over the top and denim Capri cropped trousers. The only difference to the pictures of Troy when he was younger, Ryan realised, was that this small girl had deep brown chocolate coloured eyes.

Next, Ryan turned his attention to the second child that had come up to them, her head still resting on Troy's shoulder as she looked at him inquisitively. She had dark curls that flowed to her shoulders, mocha coloured skin, that seemed almost too perfect and she was wearing a three-quarter length cream top, only this time with a long brown embroidered pinafore dress that reached just before her knee. As Ryan studied the little girl, his eyes were drawn to hers and when he met them he found that they were the same brilliant sapphire blue of his best friends, the only difference was that this little girl was an exact duplicate of Gabriella. **(Pictures of the outfits** **are in my profile, they're really cute.)**

There was no doubt in any of the gang's mind about who these children could be and what Troy said next only confirmed their suspicions.

"You guys I'd like you to meet my four year old daughter Ashley Bolton," he said pointing to the blonde girl.

"Daddy you always said that it was rude to point!" Ashley said looking at her father, very confused, which made the gang and Troy smile.

"I did baby and I was right the first time," he said as he held out his hand, which she gladly took. "And this is my three year old daughter Victoria Bolton." He smiled at the little girl resting on his shoulder and she shot the gang one of her million dollar smiles, mirroring that of her father earlier.

"Daddy you can't call her Victoria no one ever calls her that," Ashley said with attitude as Troy tried not to laugh at his daughter. Ashley turned to the gang, "excuse my daddy he's easily con- con conf- daddy," she whined.

"Confused," Troy replied with a smile and she grinned.

"Yeah that word," she turned back to the gang, who still looked shocked, "this is my little sister Vixie."

"Well you guys these are mine and Ella's girls…" Troy trailed of looking nervously at the gang, awaiting their reactions.

**So anyway tell me what you think I'm not too happy with this chapter, I think that the gang should have had more issues with Troy when he first turned up…**


	3. Chapter 3

**Returned**

**Hey guys, sorry that I haven't updated in a while but I've been busy trying to update my other story Need You More Than Ever, but my holidays have just started so I should be able to update more often. Thanks for the reviews, I love to hear what you guys think. So anyway here's chapter 3, please keep reviewing and tell me what you think.**

**Chapter 3**

The gang stood in an eerie silence for a few minutes, Troy hugging his two daughters close to him, for security, knowing that what was about to come sure wasn't going to be good, especially taking into account the fact that Sharpay's face was becoming redder by the second.

Suddenly she exploded, "WHAT?! I CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT GABRIELLA WAS PREGNANT AND YOU NEVER TOLD US!" She screamed, causing quite a few heads to turn their way and people to edge away from the group.

Vixie let out a slight whimper and buried her head into the crook of Troy's neck, which infuriated him as anger flashed through his electrifying eyes and he glared at Sharpay for upsetting his baby girl.

Anger also flashed through Ashley's eyes and she stepped up to Sharpay, stopping directly in front of her.

"Nobody scares my little sister but me… and even I never do it on purpose!" she said, sounded scarily full of spite for a child so young, "and nobody is nasty to my daddy or about my family! Got that!" She finished with a yell and a stomp on Sharpay's foot, who gave a yelp of pain, before turning back to her sister and her father.

"Look Troy maybe you should just go," Zeke said looking at him angrily.

Troy set Vixie down on the ground and turned to his older daughter, "Ashley take Vix back to the park please and I'll come get you when I'm done here, which shouldn't take too long." He finished glaring up at the gang.

The little girl nodded as they both wrapped their arms around Troy's neck, "love you daddy," Vixie whispered, with her sister nodding along, before Ashley took Vixie's hand and they ran back in the direction of the park.

Troy watched them for a minute before turning back on Sharpay, the anger making his eyes turn quite a few shades darker. He stood up and looked at her, if looks could kill at this moment in time, Sharpay would have died the most painful death possible in Troy's mind. Nobody upset his little girl and got away with it.

"HOW THE HELL COULD YOU DO THAT SHARPAY?! SHE'S A THREE YEAR OLD GIRL! YOU JUST TERRIFIED HER! I MEAN BLOODY HELL SHAR I'M SEEING THE REASON WHY ELLA DIDN'T WANT TO TELL ANY OF YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Troy roared right in Sharpay's face, as he got angrier with every word.

Sharpay just stared at him, "Well Bolton if you and Montez had had the guts to tell us that she was pregnant in the first place, we wouldn't be here right now would we," she hissed.

Troy just laughed harshly, "Oh this is priceless, princess Sharpay, always wants her own way, always gets it too, just to stop her from throwing a little bitch fit."

Sharpay's face started to redden again, "Well guess what, we were going to tell you when she was pregnant with Ash, Sharpay, we were going to tell all of you, but we decided to tell Ella's mom first and she exploded at the news yelling at her to get out and leave or get an abortion. Ella was terrified Sharpay, she couldn't take another reaction like that, so we packed up our bags and left, it was the hardest thing that either of us have ever done and do you think that the last few years have been an easy picnic for us?" Here he laughed harshly again before continuing, "We were two 18 year olds, with a baby on the way. We had to work two jobs each until Ella couldn't work anymore, we had to put ourselves through university, using online classes, luckily we both got scholarships or that would have never have happened and for the first two years we lived in a tiny one bedroomed apartment, with one toddler and one tiny baby after Ella had Vixie as well, Vixie who damn well nearly died from being born two months premature and had to be kept on a ventilator for the first three weeks of her life, she was so small that she fit in the palm of my hand and the doctors told us that she was going to die so don't you dare tell me that we should have told you." Troy yelled at her, venom seeping through his words as he glared at her, then at the rest of the gang. "Have any of you ever known life like that?"

They all looked away guiltily.

"Yeah I thought not," he replied before turning and walking down towards the playground.

"Oh and by the way not that you asked, but each of the girls have some part of you in their names. Ashley Valerie Josie Sharpay Kelsi Zoey Amelia Bolton and Victoria Anne Charlotte Gabriella Rhianna Taylor Vanessa Bolton, really wished that we'd never bothered now," he said before stalking off down towards the playground again.

"That Bolton's got some nerve coming back here and talking to us like that," Zeke stated, wrapping an arm around Sharpay's waist, as she and Jason nodded in agreement with him.

"Dude, what the hell is your problem?" Chad asked, before shooting them all a disgusted look and taking off towards Troy, who was currently searching the playground so that they could leave.

Taylor took one last look at the traitors, before following her husband towards Troy and the girls. Kelsi and Ryan also took one last look at them before following, Kelsi shooting her husband a disappointed look at the fact that he had agreed with them.

The three left on the hill gaped as they watched their friends walk up to Troy and pull him and the girls into a hug, much to their shock.

"Fine then if they want it that way," Sharpay huffed as she turned around and stormed down the other side of the hill, Zeke and Jason trailing behind her with one last look over their shoulders. Jason sighed, knowing that the next while at his house was going to be like hell on Earth as neither him nor Kelsi were the kind to give in easily.

Back at the playground, Chad had pulled Troy into a death grip hug, startling him completely. Troy pulled away and looked at Chad and the other three, confused, the girls were now hugging into Troy's legs, scared that these people would be as scary as the blonde haired lady they had just unfortunately had the pleasure of meeting.

"Not all of us agree with the likes of my sister Troy," Ryan said quietly, before grabbing Troy's arm and pulling him in for another hug, breaking apart from the hug, Ryan looked down at the girls and smiled, "they really are two beautiful little girls, and from the way that Ashley handled Sharpay, you and G have definitely raised them right."

Troy grinned before he was assaulted with hugs from the two girls, "We're so sorry Troy, we really didn't know that she was going to react like that but Ryan's right they really are beautiful and we don't all agr-" Kelsi was suddenly cut off by Troy's hand over her mouth.

"Kelsi, you're rambling," Troy laughed, the sparkle returning to his eye as his friends grinned. Suddenly he felt a tug at his pants leg and looked down to see Ashley tugging on them impatiently. He raised his eyebrows at her and picked her up as Vixie still leant against his leg.

"Daddy who are they? Are they nice?" Ashley questioned suspiciously.

Troy laughed, "Yes Ash, they're very nice people. This is you're Uncle Chad," he pointed at Chad and Chad grinned, "this is your Aunt Kelsi," he pointed at Kelsi, who smiled at the girls and gave them a wave, "this is your Aunt Taylor, go to her if you need any sweets," he grinned at Taylor who laughed and smiled at the girls, "and this is your Uncle Ryan, he always wears funny hats and shirts," Ryan grinned at the girls.

Ashley eyed them up once more before holding her arms out to Ryan. Ryan smiled at her and looked to Troy, who smiled at him reassuringly and handed his eldest daughter over to Ryan.

Ryan smiled at her, "Hello Ashley." She grinned back at him, pushing her hat off of her head and Troy bent down just in time to catch it before it hit the floor.

"Hi Uncle Ry Ry, I like your hat, it's much much prettier than mine," Ashley smiled as Troy rolled his eyes and she started to point out all of the sequins on Ryan's green hat. **(The one he wears's in what I've been looking for.) **Ryan smiled and took it off of his own head, placing it on Ashley's who squealed in delight, as everyone else laughed.

Chad looked down as he felt a tug on his pants and smiled when Vixie held her arms up to him. He grinned and picked her up and immediately she started to pat his hair in complete awe.

"Kitty," she shrieked, "hi kitty, good kitty," she murmured, still stroking Chad's hair as everyone burst into hysterical laughter and looked on amused. Having enough of that, Vixie sighed and leant her head on Chad's shoulder, and twirling her own ringlets around her finger.

Troy grinned, "she must really like you Chad, Vixie normally won't go near anyone she doesn't know and let them hold her like that." Chad just grinned as if to say that he was the best and the rest laughed again. Troy looked at his watch and his eyes widened. "Oh wow guys, we better get going, I told Ella we'd be back in fifteen minutes."

Ashley frowned and wriggled out of Ryan's hold, still wearing his hat, she pulled a pout that looked exactly like her mother's and folded her arms across her chest. "But daddy you promised that we could go for ice cream," she pouted. At the mention of ice cream, Vixie's head shot up off of Chad's shoulder and she nodded her head furiously, agreeing with her sister.

Troy laughed, "I'm not gonna hear the end of this until I take you for some am I?" Both girls shook their heads, grinning sweetly at their father. "Fine then," he finished laughing still.

"Good," Ashley turned back to the rest of the gang, "would you like to come join us for some ice cream? My daddy's paying," she grinned cheekily as Troy's mouth started to open and close double speed and the gang roared with laughter, Vixie now resting quietly comfortably in Taylor's arms, watching everything that was going on and blinking, confused.

Kelsi smiled, "you don't mind if we join you do you Troy? We will pay for ourselves though of course."

Troy laughed good naturedly, seeing the funny side to his daughter's comment, "actually I'd love for you guys to join us I need to catch up on what's been goi-" Troy suddenly stopped and whirled around.

"Hi Mommy," Ashley chirped into her dad's cell phone, "no we're not coming home yet we're going for ice cream," the little girl said brightly as Troy looked at his daughter in a wondering amusement, wondering how she got her hands on his phone. "Please come join us mommy!" the little girl begged and then handed the phone to Troy.

"Hey Ella, no I didn't know that our daughter had my phone," he grinned, "but yes you do need to come get some ice cream and take a break from working, yeah, we'll be at our old place, yes the one on Langton Avenue, okay see you there, love you too," he grinned and shut his phone before turning back to his oldest daughter, "You are one evil child my dear and we can now add pick pocketing onto your list of crimes."

She shrugged, "just doing my job," she said holding her arms up with an innocent expression that turned into peals of laughter as Troy started to tickle her.

Finally releasing his daughter, he took her hand and turned to the gang, "ready to go?" They all nodded, still laughing, glad that Troy had come back into their lives and brought two bundles of fun with him.

Troy's eyes landed on his younger daughter and his expression softened, "do you want me to take her?" he asked looking at Taylor, who was currently carrying the zonked out toddler.

She grinned, "nah she's light as a feather." Troy just raised his eyebrows in response, showing that he didn't believe her, before turning back to his conversation with Chad as they walked down the sidewalk together, keeping one eye on Ashley, who was currently racing with Ryan, just up ahead.

As soon as they got to the ice cream parlour, Vixie's eyes snapped open and she struggled out of Taylor's arms, jumping up and down in excitement as the others watched her laughing.

"Okay girls what do you want?" Troy questioned.

"Cookie Dough!" Ashley yelled.

"Choco spinkles and sauce!" Vixie yelled, trying her hardest to get the words right.

"No nuts and one cherry pwease!" both girls finished together, used to having the same order by this point.

Troy chuckled and looked at the waitress, repeating their order, and adding his and Gabriella's as well. Once the rest of the gang had ordered and paid theirs, they went and found a table relatively close to the door, so that Gabriella would be able to see them straight away.

Within minutes, the girls had managed to get ice cream everywhere, all over their faces and down the front of their clothes, which made the others laughed as Troy tried in vain to clean up the mess that they were making, sat on the floor beside to table. Giving up, Troy sat back up at the table and carried on his conversation with his friends, although watching the girls like a hawk, obviously extremely protective of them.

A few minutes later, the door opened and a petite dark haired woman walked in, wearing a black dress that ended just before her knee and a beaded necklace, along with dark sunglasses, **(Picture in profile.)** that she took off as she scanned the small parlour.

"Beautiful as ever I see Briella."

Troy just grinned as Gabriella jumped about a foot in the air and turned around slowly, as if she thought she was imagining the voice.

"Chad you idiot, what did you expect," Taylor snapped, hitting Chad over the back of the head. Turning back to Gabriella, she eyed her up and down, "I cannot believe that you've had two kids, you look just as good as ever, I envy you, I'll never get my figure back once I have kids."

Gabriella's mouth was opening and closing, her eyes wide, but she still couldn't seem to find the words, as Taylor suddenly erupted into squeals and ran to her old best friend, Kelsi following suit, as the guys took a much less obvious root and walked slowly up to the gaggle of screaming girls to hug their little sister, at long last after a five year wait.

The girls looked on, Vixie whispering "crazy people" as she shook her head slowly, her eyes mirroring those of her mother's, big, wide and innocent, as Ashley let out a whistle and rolled her finger around her ear, indicating that she agreed with her younger sister.

**Well there's chapter 3 and I tried to make it a lot longer than the others as it's quite a key chapter, so please review it and tell me what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, sorry for the wait, but thanks so much for the reviews. Anyway as I kept you waiting, here's chapter 4, please enjoy and tell me what you thought of it!**

**Chapter 4**

Once they had gotten over the excitement of seeing each other again, the girls decided to spend the time in the ice cream parlour catching up and moved away from the guys who started talking about basketball, which just made the girls laugh, after five years away from each other, with so much catching up to do they decided to talk about basketball? Personally, the girls all thought that they were crazy.

Vixie and Ashley kept switching between the tables, depending on who was giving them the most attention, and they lapped all of it up, loving every minute of it as their parents and aunts and uncles watched on lovingly.

They soon discovered that if they were with the girls, they got cooed over and hugged and kissed constantly, as well as actually being talked to, whereas with the guys, they got fed. Every time they went over with an empty ice cream pot, one of the guys would automatically get up and get them a new one. Needless to say, the girls loved this and used this to their full advantage as their sugar rush gathered momentum with each mouthful of the sweet cookie dough and the adults just laughed at them, even when they started a small ice cream fight with Chad and Ryan, which ended up with the whole group being kicked out of the parlour, something that the gang had experienced quite a lot in their high school years.

After being kicked out of the ice cream parlour, the gang decided to head back to Troy and Gabriella's old house as the girls were in desperate need of a clean up and the house still needed a lot of sorting out.

The guys decided that they would handle all of the heavy stuff, putting together the likes of beds and tables as they went along, room by room. The girls on the other hand moved into a room once the guys were finished in it and added all of the final touches, such as photos and cushions.

Vixie and Ashley however were sat in the front room, the only fully complete room, playing with their dolls, with the occasional visit from one of the adults, to play with them for a few minutes or just to see if they needed anything and were ok.

Once the sort out was finished, the gang were collapsed on the couches in the front room, trying to decide on what to do next, when suddenly Vixie came running into the room, and stopped in front of her parents, grinning wildly at them.

"What is it Vix?" Gabriella asked, eyeing her daughter up and down with a smile.

"Pool!" Vixie yelled excitedly tossing her swimsuit at Gabriella, before trying to pull her up.

"Well it is something to do I suppose," Gabriella smiled as she turned back to the others, who were all grinning.

"We'll go home and get our stuff and be back here in twenty minutes?" Ryan said as the rest all nodded, before running for the door, arguing over who was going to get out first as they all got stuck in the doorway. Vixie on the other hand had a much better idea and crawled between their legs, before standing and looking up at them giggling.

Exactly twenty minutes later, Gabriella was lying on a sun bed, reading her latest book, while Troy was in the pool with the girls, taking it in turns to catch them as they came flying down the slide.

Chad, seeing peace and quiet, suddenly came running and cannon balled into the pool, laughing at the looks of shock of the Bolton's faces, before they all creased into laughter again.

Ryan decided a more subtle approach and dove into the pool discreetly, coming up beside Troy and making him jump, as Kelsi and Taylor walked over to join Gabriella on the sun beds and Ashley and Vixie ran after them, drying of quickly in the hot afternoon Albuquerque sun.

A wicked smile suddenly spread across Troy's features as he looked over to his wife, who was currently lounging on a sun bed talking to Taylor and Kelsi.

He slowly crept out of the pool, putting his finger to his lips to silence the giggling girls that were sat at the end of their mother's sun bed. The girls, seeing Troy's actions immediately put their hands over their mouths, in a hopeless attempt to stifle their giggles.

Gradually, Troy moved so that he was standing over Gabriella, blocking out her sun. He also leant over, so that he was dripping all over her dry form.

Suddenly she lifted off her glasses and glared at him.

"Trooooyyyyyy!!!" she whined, causing the others to laugh and Troy to smirk, "you're getting me all wet and you're blocking out my sun!"

Troy just laughed, "Well then let's see what we can do about that then." Without warning, Troy scooped Gabriella up and threw her over his shoulder, as she screamed at him to put her down and the rest of the gang tried to control their hysterics.

"Troy put me down now!" she yelled, thrashing about, struggling to get free.

Troy just laughed, "Not happening Ella, so you may as well stop trying." He finished grinning smugly.

Gabriella sighed and stopped struggling, "at least the views good from here."

The rest of the gang started to laugh harder as a cheeky grin spread over Troy's face and the girls scrunched up their faces, trying to work out what was so funny that their mom just said.

"Well for that comment Mrs. Bolton, I may just have to never let you down," Troy grinned, keeping a tight hold on Gabriella's legs as she started to wriggle again.

"Troooooooyyyyyyyy!!!" she whined again, causing a fresh peel of laughter to erupt from the gang and the girls.

Troy turned to his daughters, who were bent over with laughter and started to advance towards them, a plan forming in his mind.

However, the girls saw his shadow hovering over them and Ashley grabbed hold of her sister's hand, pulling her up as the two of them ran away from Troy and around the large garden, still giggling.

Troy laughed, giving them a few minutes head start, before taking off after them, Gabriella screaming louder than ever and now hitting the small of his back, to add to the affect.

Once he caught up with them, Troy easily scooped Ashley and Vixie up in his one spare arm and started to jog towards the pool.

"Troy don't you dare!" Gabriella screamed, wriggling again as Troy just laughed.

"Daddy no!" Ashley screeched as Troy kept progressing towards the pool.

Troy just grinned as he started to run full pelt and dove into the pool, his three girls screaming as he did so.

The gang were watching, shocked that Troy would risk something like that with his two daughters being so young. But Ashley was the first one to surface and started to tread water, grinning as her mom joined her on the surface, spitting out water and brushing her hair out of her eyes as she did so.

"That was so cool!" Ashley yelled, still grinning and treading water as she started to swim towards the steps as her dad and sister surfaced.

Gabriella glared at Troy, "Git." She said, but laughed as he drew her towards him and she wrapped her legs around his waist, giving him a quick peck on the lips, before swimming off after Ashley.

Troy chuckled, as her turned around to make sure that his younger daughter was ok.

Vixie grinned at him as she tread water, before swimming over to him and wrapping her small arms around his neck.

"Daddy," she giggled as Troy started to swim, taking a deep breath before Troy dived down under the water and laughing when he came back up near the steps, placing her on the side as she ran to Gabriella, to get her towel.

Troy smiled and climbed out of the pool, walking towards the sun bed that his family were currently occupying and taking his towel off Gabriella, before pulling Vixie onto his knee and smiling at her as she started to trace his mouth with her index finger, Gabriella did the same with Ashley, before leaning into Troy, all four Bolton's huddled in towels.

"What?" Gabriella asked, concerned as the whole gang stared at the family in shock.

"Nothing, nothing," Taylor started, but continued when Troy and Gabriella both rose their eyebrows, "it's just that the girls aren't even five yet and they can already swim better than a lot of adults."

Troy and Gabriella laughed. "The girls have been swimming before they could walk, one of the perks of being a baby in L.A., having the ocean right there," Troy explained to the gang, smiling as they nodded.

"So you were in L.A. then?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah we were, but can we talk about this later," Gabriella broke off as she saw Vixie yawn, "it's time that the girls went to bed I think somehow," she smiled as both girls started arguing with her. "No girls, bed now, but I promise that you can see everyone else in the morning, ok?" Gabriella asked, grinning as the gang also nodded along with her plan.

"Fine," Ashley huffed, "one thing though."

"What is it?" Troy asked cautiously, not liking where this was going.

"No bath," Vixie stated simply, crossing her arms and staring down both her parents.

Gabriella laughed, "fine then missy miss," she said, resting her forehead on Vixie's, causing her to giggle. Gabriella then scooped up Vixie from Troy's lap and took hold of Ashley's hand, leading them back towards the house as she smiled at the gang.

Everyone else took the opportunity to put their clothes back on over their swimsuits, before heading back to the house, Troy sprinting up the stairs to say goodnight to his girls, the rest of the gang following at a slower pace.

When they reached the girls room, they had to smile at what they saw, the family were all sat around, Ashley on Troy's knee, leaning into his chest, and Vixie the same on Gabriella as the adults leant against the wall, sat next to each other, their arms wrapped around their children, as they softly sang Everyday to them.

Vixie gave a soft snuffle and Gabriella smiled at her daughter, before picking her up and lying her in one of the beds. "Night baby girl," she whispered, kissing her on top of the head as Vixie reached her hand up to touch her mom's face, Gabriella smiled and moved to Ashley's side of the room as Troy moved over to Vixie.

Pretty soon, both parents had said goodnight to their children, kissing the infants softly as they did so. Moving towards the door, where their friends were still standing, Troy and Gabriella turned back toward their daughter.

"Night night Daddy," Ashley whispered as she rolled onto her side and clutched her blanket close to her, softly rubbing it between her fingers.

"Night Momma," Vixie murmured, rolling towards the wall and clutching her stuffed eeyore toy close to her, shutting her eyes.

"Night girls," both parents said at the same time as Gabriella switched of the light and Troy gently closed the door, ushering their friends back down the stairs.

Sat around the kitchen table, the adults all sipped on coffee, no one daring to talk as they all had to many questions.

"So…" Kelsi decided to be brave and start, "I don't want to seem mean or anything but how can you guys afford all of this stuff and this house? Cause from what Troy was saying earlier, you would never have been able to afford this, I mean you said that you were in a ting one bedroomed flat and now you guys are living in a six bedroomed house, complete with swimming pool and basketball court, did you rob a bank or something?"

Troy chuckled and Gabriella giggled, "No we didn't rob a bank Kelly," Gabriella started and Kelsi smiled at Gabriella's nickname for her, having missed it over the years.

"You guys have to understand, at one point, we were really desperate, but we really don't want to go into that right now," Troy continued from where his wife left off, "you see during my second year of online classes, and playing for the school team, to keep up with my scholarship, the L.A. Lakers came knocking."

Chad gasped and Ryan's mouth dropped as they turned to Troy, shocked, "Dude," Chad let out with a whistle as the others all laughed.

"Needless to say, Troy accepted their offer and quit his other two jobs, however we both continued with the online classes, as a back up," Gabriella continued, laughing slightly at the gangs expressions, "he used a false name of course, we still didn't want to risk being caught at that point."

"Dude I told you that there was something freakily familiar about that Zac Efron player," Ryan exclaimed, nudging Chad, who just nodded in shock.

Troy laughed, continuing, "Luckily for me I did really well and made the starting team within a couple of months, and I was still playing for them until about a month ago, when I busted my knee and I really can t play even half as good as what I used to, so I found out about the job going at East High, and after talking to Ella about it, we decided that it was about time that we came back home," he finished, with a small smile.

"Well I for one am really glad that you came back," Taylor smiled, hugging her two long lost friends.

"Me too, Tay, Me too," Gabriella smiled, "Now it's really late and I don't want you guys walking home at this time, so will you stay here? I mean it is thanks to you guys that the house is completely in order after all, if it was just Troy and I, we'd be sleeping on a blow up mattress in the front room," she laughed.

The gang grinned. "If you're sure that we won't be intruding Gabby, then I for one would love to stay," Kelsi said and the others nodded in agreement.

Eventually, they settled down to watch a movie, The Notebook, on Gabriella's insistence that that was the only one that she had unpacked so far, which Troy knew for a fact was a lie, but really didn't feel like arguing with her right now, so he just laughed and put it in the DVD player.

Halfway through the movie, Troy looked down to see Gabriella asleep on his chest and the rest of the gang nearly asleep, so he picked Gabriella bridal style and moved to switch off the movie ordering the rest up to bed.

After changing Gabriella and getting changed himself, Troy looked in on the girls, to see them fast asleep, Ashley holding her blanket lightly over her nose, with her other hand scrunched up in a ball around her comforter. Vixie on the other hand was still facing the wall, one arm still clutched firmly around her eeyore toy, her other thumb stuffed into her mouth. Troy smiled at his daughters, before softly closing the door and padding back up the hallway to his own room.

The next morning, Gabriella smiled at Taylor and Kelsi, the three of them were sat around her kitchen table, reminiscing and telling each other about their lives over the past five years, mainly Taylor and Kelsi filling Gabriella in about what had been happening in Albuquerque though as she wasn't ready to tell them all about her past yet.

Standing up, Gabriella looked back towards the other girls, "I'm just gonna go and see if I can find Ashley and Vixie, I haven't heard a peep from them all morning."

The other two nodded, "bring them back in here, they're so cute and we need to get to know them more," Taylor grinned as Kelsi nodded furiously.

Gabriella laughed, glad that her friends got on with her children, "I'll see what I can do, but I'm not promising anything, those girls have minds of their own and will not do what they don't want to do."

Gabriella left the room grinning as Taylor and Kelsi just laughed.

"They're just like their mother then!" Taylor yelled as she left, causing Gabriella to laugh harder and shake her head.

Walking into their front room, Gabriella rolled her eyes as she saw Troy, Chad and Ryan battling it out on the Xbox.

"Troy have you seen or heard from the girls at all today?" Gabriella questioned, starting to worry, as they weren't with Troy.

"No, I thought you were getting them up today, although now you say it, the house does sound too quiet," Troy said, concerned as he looked over his shoulder at Gabriella.

Gabriella laughed, "I thought you were getting them up, they'll still be in bed, considering that they take after their father when it comes to sleeping habits, I'll go get them now," she finished, still laughing as Troy stuck his tongue out at her and turned back around to his game, the other guys smiling as well as Gabriella headed up the stairs.

"Okay lazybones, it's time to wake up," she smiled as she opened the door to their room. "Ash, Vix, are you two awake?" she called as she walked into the girls' room.

Her happy expression quickly changed to one of pure horror as she took in the site before her. Toys were strewn all over the floor and pictures had been ripped from the walls. But most shockingly, two little beds were empty, the covers thrown off of them and the window was wide open, a rip running through the curtains.

Gabriella let out an ear splitting scream…

**Hope you guys liked it, just some family fluff really, before the real drama starts to unfold, so review and tell me what you liked and what you didn't. Thanks for reading.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, thanks for the reviews, anyway on with the story, will Vixie and Ashley be all right? Here's chapter 5,please read it and review.**

**Chapter 5**

Hearing his wife's terrified scream, Troy promptly dropped the controller he was holding and sprinted for the stairs, Ryan and Chad not far behind him and the girls running full speed out of the kitchen, catching them up in an instant.

As they reached the girls door, they all gasped in horror and Troy sank to his knees, taking hold of the trembling Gabriella, who was sobbing heart-wrenching sobs and desperately trying to keep his own sobs at bay, as he pulled her to him.

The rest of the gang moved further into the room, not able to believe what they were seeing and praying that this was just some kind of sick joke.

Kelsi noticed it first, Ryan straight after and the two of them headed towards the wall, where a note was currently blowing in the wind from the open window, stuck to the wall with a knife.

"I need to go and call the police," Troy whispered, his eyes bright red, tears still streaming down his cheeks as he passed the bawling Gabriella to Taylor's safe arms, who had tears leaking down her own face.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Troy," Ryan said, sounding appalled, as Kelsi nodded in agreement.

Troy stopped in the doorway, his breathing speeding up as his fists clenched in anger. "RYAN, DON'T YOU GET IT? MY DAUGHTERS' ARE MISSING RYAN! I NEED TO CONTACT THE POLICE SO THAT THEY CAN HELP US TO FIND THEM!" Troy roared, whirling around on Ryan and Kelsi, still breathing hard.

"Troy, Ryan's right," Kelsi whispered, trying to calm down her friend through her own tears, "this guy works for the police Troy. He says that if you do anything about it, he'll hurt the girls."

Troy's face immediately dropped as he snatched the note off of Kelsi.

_Dear Bolton,_

_It's been a long time since I saw your face around here, but I for one am glad you came back and brought something so precious with you. You see Bolton, back in high school, you ruined my life, so I decided when I saw you playing happy families yesterday that I would return the favour. So say goodbye to your precious little ones, you'll have to work a miracle that even I don't think East High's golden boy can pull off to see them again._

_It's been great pulling this off and causing you the misery that you caused me._

_T.B._

_P.S. Phone the police and there will be only one way that you will ever see the girls again, and that will be in body bags, and don't try and do it secretly cause I work there and will be onto you in an instant._

After reading the note, Troy sank to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably as Gabriella crawled across the floor towards him and buried her head in the crook of his neck, as he buried his face in her hair and held onto her tightly, both sobbing as though there was no tomorrow.

The gang watched on from the doorway of the room, crying their own tears for the sweet little girls who were missing, and their hearts breaking for their friends, sobbing as the gang had never seen them before in front of them.

**Okay guys that was just a very short chapter, but the more reviews I get for this, the quicker I'll update it, I may even possibly update later on today, so please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Returned**

**Hiya guys thanks for all of the reviews! Glad you like it and as promised, here is chapter 6, so read it and review!**

**Chapter 6**

After getting over the initial shock of seeing the girls' room and reading the note, the gang had moved back downstairs, and to say that they were a mess was an understatement.

Gabriella was sat on the couch, her knees pulled up to her chest, just staring into space, refusing to look at anyone. Taylor was sat next to her, one arm wrapped around Gabriella's shoulders as her own tears still streamed down her face.

Troy and Kelsi were sat on the other couch; Kelsi trying to tend to Troy's hand as after he had stopped sobbing, the anger had set in and he had thrown his fist threw the wall. Occasionally Troy would give a yelp of pain and Kelsi would mumble a sorry, but other than that they were silent, each still crying silent tears.

Chad was leaning on the doorframe, trying to figure out who would have dared lay a hand on his nieces and frowning as he watched everyone else in so much pain and tried to keep his own tears at bay.

Ryan however had walked into the kitchen and picked up his cell phone, dialling the one number that if the rest of the gang knew, they would probably kill him for dialling, as he pressed the call button, he sucked in a deep breath, praying that he was doing the right thing.

When she noticed her phone ringing, she grinned and turned to the other two, "See, I told you that they'd phone to apologise to us by the end of the day," she smirked.

Zeke and Jason just nodded silently, sensing that something was very wrong as the gang were all stubborn as hell and no one would give in to any of the others without a fight first.

"Called to apologise then have you," Sharpay trilled into her phone at her brother.

On the other end, Ryan's face turned to stone and he clutched onto the kitchen table, trying to not let his current anger at his sister boil over, "No Sharpay I haven't called to apologise at all, I'm still more disgusted in your actions than I think I have ever been before, even that summer at Lava Springs when you broke Troy and G up."

Sharpay's mouth dropped in shock at the iciness in her brothers voice, before realising that she had to say something to keep her dignity, "Well then, I have nothing to say to you and I don't even know why you bothe-"

She was cut of by Ryan's sudden yell, "ASHLEY AND VIXIE ARE MISSING SHAR! NO ONE HAS ANY IDEA WHERE THEY ARE!" He suddenly exploded, breathing heavily as Chad walked into the kitchen and put a comforting hand on Ryan's shoulder as in the other room, Gabriella started to wail loudly again. Ryan cringed, realising that he was more than likely the cause of that.

On the other end, Sharpay, Zeke and Jason all paled, the latter two having heard Ryan yelling over the phone, "Where are you?" Zeke questioned, snatching the phone off a stunned Sharpay.

Getting the details from Ryan, Zeke immediately snapped Sharpay's cell phone closed and ordered her and Jason to get into the car double speed, all three of them feeling increasingly guilty for what had gone on the previous day, and wondering if they could have done anything to prevent this.

As soon as everyone was buckled in safely, Zeke took off at speeds that would undoubtedly get them arrested if he was caught, heading towards the Bolton's house.

Reaching the house within minutes, the three stumbled out of the car and rushed to the front door, ringing the doorbell frantically.

Sat in the front room, Troy heard the doorbell and rushed for the door, praying that by some miracle, it was someone with the girls. His face fell and then grew frosty as he saw who it was.

Wrenching open the door, he prepared to yell at them again, when Sharpay launched herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, sobbing about how sorry she was and how much she wanted to help find the girls and get to know them better.

Troy was momentarily stunned, before he broke down in his own sobs and hugged Sharpay back strongly. Zeke and Jason stood to the side, shuffling from foot to foot, feeling uncomfortable, before Sharpay glared at them and pulled them into the hug as well, each of them telling Troy how truly sorry they were, as he just nodded, unable to speak from the days events.

Jason gently tugged the other three into the front room and they were met by harsh glares from everyone else, except Gabriella, who was just staring into space.

Troy eventually pulled out of the hug and saw the glares that everyone was giving the new arrivals, Taylor looking like she was about to explode at any possible moment. "Look guys, they've said that they're sorry and I can tell that they mean it," Troy whispered without any emotion as he cast his gaze over the rest of the group, "So give them a break and don't start screaming and yelling cause that isn't gonna help anyone," he finished, his gaze finally resting on Gabriella, his expression softening as she looked up at him, fresh tears blinding his vision as he sunk down on the couch next to his wife, pulling her into another hug that she gladly returned, still not speaking to anyone.

After a few moments, Kelsi finally couldn't take it anymore and ran to Jason, encasing herself in a hug from him in an attempt to lift some of the sorrow that she was currently feeling as the brand new tears slowly cascaded down her cheeks silently.

Zeke also pulled Chad and Taylor in for hugs as the three of them whispered softly to each other as Sharpay made her way cautiously over to the couple seated on the sofa and Ryan joined in with Jason and Kelsi's hug.

The whole gang stood together as they watched Sharpay move slowly and bend down in front of Gabriella, moving a stubborn lock of Gabriella's hair gently out of her eyes.

"Hey boo," she murmured tenderly, using her old nickname for Gabriella.

Straight away, Gabriella looked at the brown eyed girl as their eyes met and she hurled herself off of Troy's lap into Sharpay's arms, who wrapped her best friend, the one who had brought her to where she was now, the one who gave her all of her friends in the first place, into a massive embrace, gently rocking the sobbing brunette on her knee and softly singing Right Here by Miley Cyrus to her, their song from high school, the one that Sharpay had always sung to get Gabriella to calm down, whilst rubbing her back soothingly.

"They were just babies Pay!" Gabriella choked out, through her sobs, "They were my babies!"

"I know Boo, I know, I'm so sorry Boo, so so sorry," Sharpay whispered, the tears gently cascading down her face and mixing with Gabriella's as everyone felt their hearts break even more as Gabriella kept repeating the same words over and over again, the first words that she had said since they had realised that the girls were missing that morning.

Troy couldn't take it any longer and fresh sobs wracked his body as he put his head in his hands, still sat on the couch, knowing that there was nothing that they could do to get their daughters' back, they didn't even have any clue who the kidnapper was.

Taylor moved over to the couch and sat down next to Troy, taking hold of his hand and smiling softly at him when he looked up at her. Chad moved to his other side and put his hand on his friends shoulder, showing that he was always there for him. Ryan moved to sit in front of Sharpay and Gabriella, gently taking one of Gabriella's hands as Zeke sat down next to his fiancée and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Jason sat with Kelsi on his knee on the other side of the blonde girl, Kelsi with one hand placed on Gabriella's shoulder as Sharpay whispered soothing words to her, in an attempt to slightly calm her sobbing, lightly rocking from side to side as she did so.

The gang sat like that for quite a while, as evening settled in around them and the room started to grow dark, comforting each other by just being there for one another.

"Oh my Gosh!" Sharpay suddenly yelled, an idea suddenly dawning on her as she shifted Gabriella from her lap and started to pace around the room.

The gang all looked up at her, confused, with red puffy eyes, Troy and Gabriella's being the worst as Ryan took a stab at what his sister had just figured out. "Shar, please tell me that this does not have something to do with shopping, especially at a time like this," Ryan said sternly, eyeing his sister up and down.

Sharpay spun around, shooting Ryan a withering glare, who shrank back under his sisters glare, "Of course not, you idiot," she hissed, before turning around to face Troy and Gabriella, "I think I know who has the girls…"

**Ok, so who does Sharpay think is the kidnapper? The more reviews I get, the quicker I will update, so as always, please review and tell me what you thought. Also if any of you read my other story Need You More Than Ever, that should be updated in the next few hours.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Returned**

**Hey guys, thanks for all of your reviews and I'm so sorry about the wait for this chapter, school has been a nightmare lately and I'm overloaded with work. Anyway, here's chapter 7 and hopefully chapter 8 should be up either tomorrow or some time over the next dew days.**

**Chapter 7**

"Tyler Beckford," Sharpay replied smugly, folding her arms as a small smile crossed her lips.

Those two small, simple words created a mixture of reactions from the rest of the gang. The girls all gaped in shock, as if they had just figured out the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Ryan's face darkened and he started to mutter and curse under his breath. Zeke just stared at Sharpay in astonishment. Chad and Jason both looked suddenly infuriated, seeming as though they were about to hit the next thing that came within 300 yards of them. Troy's eyes darkened by several shades as a low growl emanated from him and his hands clenched into fists.

"Tyler Beckford," Zeke finally hissed out, "that son of a bitch."

All of the rest of the guys nodded in agreement, each remembering their final championship game, in their senior year. Again, the game was against the West High Knights, and after losing the year previous, they were out for revenge.

The game had started as good as any, but when it got to half time and the Knights were losing, it became personal. After half time, Beckford, who was their captain of the West High Knights basketball team for their junior and senior year, led a full on assault by the Knights.

Most of this though was directed at Troy, Beckford's arch nemesis, and the Knights took any opportunity to play dirty and to trip him up.

Eventually, Beckford was sent off, for tripping up Troy, and nearly causing him to break an ankle.

This foul earned the Wildcats a free throw, which naturally Troy took and they ended up winning the game, something that the Knights had never forgiven Beckford for, he was kicked of the team and out casted immediately after the game, as for the rest of the Knights, many of them were now very good friends with a lot of the ex-Wildcat team.

"Tyler Beckford," Chad hissed this time, "It all fits."

Sharpay nodded and looked at Gabriella, who still had a stunned look on her face. "But why would he want to hurt my baby girls?" she whispered, her eyes refilling with tears as she searched her friends faces for answers.

"Because he believes that I ruined his life," a rough voice filled in, as everyone turned to look at Troy, who was sitting with his hands covering his face, his elbows resting on his knees.

Gabriella quickly got up from her position on the couch and moved so that she was sat directly in front of Troy, taking his hands into hers and looking him dead in the eyes, her eyes blazing with so many unanswered questions, searching his cobalt ones, looking to see if they held the answers.

He gave her a weak smile and pulled her onto his knee, burying his head in her hair and taking a deep breath, the rest of the gang watching him, just as confused as Gabriella was.

"I'm so sorry Ella, this is all my fault, if it wasn't for me, our girls would still be here with you right now, happy and healthy," he sighed as his eyes found a picture of the girls from Vixie's second birthday party, Ashley dressed up as Snow White and Vixie dressed up as Cinderella, both grinning happily, with cake smeared all over their dresses, their hair and their faces.

Hearing Troy's confession, Gabriella pulled away from him and met his gaze once again. "Don't you ever dare say something like that Troy Bolton," she hissed, in a tone that the gang had never heard her use, her eyes darkening, "if it wasn't for you, those two little girls wouldn't be in this world at all. You're the best father that I know and they love you to death, you're the best thing that could have possibly happened to them and to me, so don't you ever dare say that this was your fault," by the end of her marathon speech, Gabriella had tears forming in her eyes again and Troy looked at her in shock, before pulling her in for another tight embrace.

Taylor suddenly cleared her throat, causing everyone to look at her, "What do you mean that he thinks you ruined his life Troy?"

Troy sighed and untangled himself from Gabriella, as he started to pace around the room. "You guys all know that after the championships he was kicked of the team, right?" he questioned, looking at the gang for answers and only continuing when they all nodded their heads. "Well after that, he started to practice non-stop, hoping to get back on the team again, his girlfriend left him because he wasn't quote unquote cool enough for her, his friends all ditched him because he wasn't on the team anymore and because he was practicing so much, his grades started to slip loads, and because of that, his parents refused to let him play basketball anymore, in the end I think he actually dropped out because he plain and simply couldn't be bothered anymore," Troy finished, taking a deep breath as he looked at the rest of his friends, whose foreheads were all furrowed in concentration.

"But what does that have to do with you? Why does he think that you caused all of that Troy, I mean it was clearly his fault," Jason stated, looking back to his friend.

Troy sighed again and resumed his pacing, "Because he believes that if I hadn't told the ref that he tripped me up during the game, that he would have led the Knights to victory that night and become their hero. He also believes that if I hadn't been playing for the Wildcats originally, that they would have won in junior year as well, so he basically blames me for playing basketball and beating him."

Kelsi still looked confused, "But if he failed high school, how come he's working for the police?"

Troy smiled weakly again, "That's what I was wondering for a while Kels, until I remembered that his uncle was the latest in a long line of the family to join the police force, so he has some huge connections with them."

The gang all sat there for another little while, each contemplating the new information that they had figured out and trying to figure out where Beckford may be hiding now.

Suddenly, everyone jumped out of their skin as the phone started to ring.

"Troy," Gabriella whispered, her face full of fear.

"Yeah," he whispered back equally as quietly as he just stared at the phone.

Gabriella gulped, "Everyone that has that number is sat here in this room with us now. All of our L.A. friends only have our cell phone numbers."

The gang all gaped at the phone in disbelief, as it continued to ring…

**Okay guys, there's chapter 7, please review and tell me what you think and like I said, hopefully chapter 8 will be up soon**.


	8. Chapter 8

**Returned**

****

****

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of the reviews, here's chapter 8, but I don't know how long it will be until chapter 9 will be up, hopefully sometime before Thursday, but it all depends on how much schoolwork I get. Anyway here's chapter 8, so please read and review.**

**Chapter 8**

Suddenly, Troy lunged at the phone and grabbed it from its' cradle. "Hello," he whispered, completely out of breath.

"Daddy?" A small, scared voice on the other end asked, causing Troy to pale to shades that normally he would not be able to turn.

"V…Vixie," he stuttered, and air of disbelief surrounding him as the rest of the gang gasped and Gabriella cried out.

"Daddy, I'm scwawed," Vixie whimpered, her voice growing quieter, as Troy's fury grew at the thought that someone was terrifying his little girls. "Der's a scwawy man heor and he took Ashwey somewhere."

Gabriella suddenly rushed out of the room and cam flying back in, carrying the extension from the kitchen, with a slight nod from Troy, she pressed the button to join the conversation and the rest of the gang all piled around her, desperately trying to hear the little girl speak.

"Where did he take Ashley baby girl?" Troy asked, trying his hardest to sooth his youngest daughters whimpers.

"I dwon't know, he took her in anoder woom, and he hasdn't come back," she cried out, her voice growing so quiet that Troy had to desperately strain his ears, just in an attempt to hear what she said.

Troy looked at Gabriella for help, his eyes wide and pleading, and she immediately jumped into the conversation.

"Hey princess," she whispered softly, almost not believing that it was really her little girl on the other end of the line.

"Momma?" Vixie questioned, her voice rising slightly with hope.

Tears streamed down Gabriella's face as she tried to choke out an answer to her little girl, "yeah baby, it's me. Did the bad man hurt you Vixie?" she questioned, asking the question that everyone urgently needed to know the answer to. Her face scrunched up, dreading what her daughter's answer would be.

"No," Vixie answered softly, but in a very firm voice for a little girl, and the whole gang breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Has he hurt Ashley?" Troy questioned, and immediately the relief was gone and concern etched itself back over everyone's faces.

"I dwon't know," Vixie replied, tears obviously threatening to fall as Troy gently shushed his daughter and quietly started to sing to her the song which only he was allowed to sing to Vixie, the one song that had calmed her down since she was just a tiny baby, My Wish by the Rascal Flatts. Vixie's sobs grew quieter as she listened intently to her dad singing her favourite song.

"I love you daddy," she whispered, the fear and terror released from her voice.

Troy smiled gently, "I love you to princess. Vixie I need you to listen to me very carefully, ok?" he questioned, his face and voice becoming very serious all of a sudden.

"Ok," Vixie mumbled quietly, and althouth she wasn't anywhere near him, Troy could picture his little girl's head bobbing up and down in answer to his question, her curls flying everywhere.

"Baby girl, do you have any idea where the bad man too-"

Troy was cut off abruptly as they all heard a sharp intake of breath from the other end and Vixie started to scream daddy over and over again, her voice getting more and more distant.

And the, the phone went dead…

**Okay guys, so there's chapter 8, it's a very short chapter, but it's adding to the suspense, hope you liked it, please review and tell me what you thought.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, sorry that this has taken so long to update, but my other story Need You More than Ever is nearly finished, and then I can fully concentrate on this one. Anyway, here's chapter 9, please read and review!**

**Chapter 9**

"Vixie! Vixie!" Troy yelled helplessly into the phone, as Gabriella sunk to her knees, sobbing. Troy growled lowly and threw the phone at the wall, smashing it to pieces instantly as he shook with rage, terrified about what might be happening to his two baby girls.

The gang all watched on, the girls trying to comfort Gabriella, as Chad tried hopelessly to calm Troy down, knowing that nothing was going to work at this point in time, even he had never seen his best friend this filled with fury before.

Then, Zeke uttered the words, which Chad, Ryan, Sharpay and Gabriella knew would make Troy fly off the edge.

"Troy man, calm down, you really need to calm down," Ryan, Sharpay and Chad all winced, hearing him say the words that they had all been avoiding using, as Troy turned on Zeke, his face red with anger, his hands balled into fists and his breathing so erratic that Taylor wondered whether he was actually breathing at all.

"CALM DOWN!" He screamed, if anything, his face getting redder. "HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN ZEKE!" Zeke winced, knowing instantly that he had made a bad choice of words. "MY BABY GIRLS' ARE MISSING ZEKE, I HAVE ABSOLUTLEY NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE OR WHAT THIS CREEP IS DOING TO THEM AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN!"

Troy's breathing became heavier and heavier as he suddenly barged passed all of the people in the room and stalked straight out of the house as thunderclouds rolled overhead, and the heavens opened.

Gabriella looked at Zeke and sighed, "Wrong choice of words Zeke, really bad choice," she smiled at him sadly before pulling herself up off of the floor and walking into the kitchen, sitting at the table and putting her head in her hands, still shaking with relief at the fact that at least her little ones were alive and that they were ok, for this moment at least.

The rest of the gang looked at each other before following Gabriella into the kitchen.

"Errrm… Gabby, shouldn't some one go after Troy," Jason muttered, pointing to the open front door.

She looked at them all with red eyes and shook her head lightly, "No you guys, he needs time to vent and cool off. I've had to live with the doofus for five years now, if you go after him, it'll only make matters worse," she smiled slightly again, as if a fond memory had started to run through her head, "there's only one little person that can work him out of his moods when he's as angry as this, and that's Vixie, she's his best pal, his little buddy, she basically copies everything that he does, G-d help me," she laughed light-heartedly, her eyes shining with memories, "the same can be said for me and Ash though, basically, where one goes, the other's not far behind." The gang all smiled at Gabriella as they all pulled out chairs around the table, settling in for a long night, the extra phone settled in the middle of them all, lying teasingly in the middle of the table.

**Okay, I know that that was a very short chapter again, but I'm working on the tenth one now, so it will hopefully be posted tonight, and will be longer, also it'd where even more drama joins the gang, please review this chapter though and tell me what you thought. Also if any of you have ever seen the show Full House, the relationship between Uncle Jesse and Michelle is just like Troy and Vixie's relationship in this.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, like I said, I had started writing this by the time I posted the ninth chapter, and luckily I managed to get it finished, also since I haven't posted a chapter of this in so long, I wanted to post the two together, it's the longest chapter of Returned that there has been for a while, so I hope that you enjoy it! Please read and review.**

**Chapter 10**

Troy was walking down by the river, kicking stones along as he walked, still fuming over what Zeke had said to him. How was he supposed to calm down when two of the most precious things in his life were missing and he had no idea where either of them were or even if they were still together?

He stopped and looked out over the water, sighing as he thought about what had just happened and a wave of guilt overcame him, as he realised that he probably had overreacted, Zeke was just trying to get him thinking logically again, instead of hot headedly, as he was obviously doing at that moment in time.

As Troy looked out over one of his favourite spots in Albuquerque, he remembered when he had first brought Vixie and Ashley out there. It had been only a week ago, about two hours after they had moved back to Albuquerque, and Troy and the girls were already getting on Gabriella's nerves, as she tried to sort out things with the new house, so Troy had volunteered to take the girls out for the day, anything to get away from unpacking and reorganising.

After managing to flee from the house, Troy had brought the girls to the very spot that he was now standing on, and had started to tell them the story of a nerd and a jock, who fell in love and broke the status quo, the girls filling him in on parts that he missed out, or just didn't remember.

He also remembered how Ashley had fallen asleep pretty soon after the story was finished, leaving him alone with his youngest daughter, who then preceded to bully him into playing a game of chase with her, as long as they stayed were he could see Ashley. He remembered how sneaky she had been, diving between his legs and running under his stretched out arms. He smiled as he gently closed his eyes, remembering the way that Vixie's eyes had lit up when he had caught her, turning her upside down and tickling her as she squealed with laughter.

He opened his eyes again and looked back out over the water, yes this was his favourite place, but only when he could share it with the ones that he loved.

Troy jumped and cursed when he heard his cell phone going off.

"WHAT?" He immediately snapped into it, believing that it would be one of the gang, trying to convince him to go back to the house.

"Now, now Bolton, is that really any way to treat the person that could potentially make the rest of your life hell?" A sinister voice from the other end sneered.

Troy immediately paled, "Beckford," he hissed, his face contorting into a look of pure hatred.

"Very good Bolton," Tyler Beckford laughed ominously from the other end, "Whoever knew that East High's golden boy would have enough brains to figure me out?"

"Beckford where are my girls?" Troy growled, his tone becoming more and more menacing as his anger grew.

Beckford laughed again as the thunder rumbled overhead and the rain lashed down on Troy, causing him to shiver from the cold. "They're right here golden boy," he laughed again, "but I'd say that they desperately want daddy dearest to come rescue them," his voice dripped with sarcasm, as he finished his sentence and Troy's hands balled into fists.

"I swear to G-d Beckford, I am going to find you, I am going to hunt you down and when I find you, I will kill you for taking my girls, and if you have hurt so much as one tiny hair on the tops of their heads, I will make it the most painful death that anyone has ever experienced," Troy's voice was dripping with so much menace and truth that on the other end of the line, Beckford was silenced, shaking in fear and wondering what the hell he had gotten himself into.

But as quickly as it had left, Tyler's confidence returned, quickly gaining momentum again, as he tried desperately to annoy Troy so much that he would lose his cool, "Yeah well Bolton I believe that the key word in what you just said was **find, **as in the fact that you will have to** find **me if you want to hurt me, and personally, I don't see that happening anytime soon, I mean how are you supposed to know where the West High Knights' den from high school is?" He laughed again, but instantly stopped as he heard an intake of breath from the other end of the phone, as Troy figured out just where his girls could possibly be.

On the other end, Troy smirked as the realisation sunk in and he tried not to think of how stupid he had been, of course Beckford would go back there, back to his glory days. "You better start running Beckford, because if I find you there, your life isn't going to be worth living anymore." Troy smirked as he snapped his phone shut and took of sprinting in the direction of the place where so many fights had taken place between the Knights and the Wildcats in high school…

**Okay, so that was chapter 10, hopefully I will be able to get chapter 11 of this up tomorrow, along with chapter 14 of Need You More Than Ever, please review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, thanks so much for all of your reviews, anyway, here's chapter 11, hope that you enjoy it, please read and review.**

**Chapter 11**

Troy quickly raced along the banks of the river, praying that he would get to his girls in time, and that Tyler was to stupid to even question whether or not he should move the three of them.

He reached the ancient abandoned warehouse of the old West High Knights team in minutes, and took a deep breath, carefully pulling his phone out of his pocket and scrolling through his contacts until he found the right number. Swiftly pressing the call button, he stuffed the phone back into his pocket, knowing that whoever picked up on the other end would be able to hear exactly what was going on.

Back at the house, Gabriella was losing her mind. She paced back and forth as the rest of the gang tried to imagine what she was going through, but it was impossible, first she had lost her children, none of them had children, so they couldn't imagine that pain, and then her husband of three and a half years had gone missing hours ago, although the rest of the gang were deeply in love with their other half's, they knew that their love was nothing to Troy and Gabriella's need for each other.

"Gabriella, can you please relax? You're making me feel seas sick just by watching you," Ryan joked, trying to lighten the heavy mood that was filling the room, but Gabriella only turned to smile at him faintly before resuming her pacing.

"Briella, Troy's a big boy, I'm sure that he can look after himself," Chad looked at Gabriella, sympathy and seriousness flooding his features, "and as for the girls, we're going to find them Briella, and none of us are going to give up until we do."

She stopped her pacing and turned around to face them, a slight smile creeping over her features, "I know that, Chad, it's just that Troy's a hothead, he's always been a hothead, it's one of the things I love about him," she laughed softly and the rest of the gang had to smile, "the only thing is that sometimes that can get him into trouble, and I'm starting to worry if this could be one of those times."

The whole gang nodded and shuddered as a memory of Troy in their senior year of high school suddenly flooded all of their minds.

**Flashback**

**The gang were all hanging out at one of the biggest social events of the East High school year, the mega big spring break blow out at head cheerleader Kirsten Harvey's mansion.**

**Gabriella suddenly started moving from foot to foot, fidgeting with her hands and Troy looked up at her laughing as she moved around on his lap.**

"**Ella if you wanna go, just go," he laughed and she glared at him.**

"**Yeah well I already tried that didn't I you idiot," her glare intensified as his laughter increased, "but one of Kirsten's friends was just a bit preoccupied in there with her boyfriend," Gabriella fumed, still fidgeting as the rest of the gang laughed, remembering Gabriella's pale, horror stricken face when she had returned from her first trip to the bathroom about twenty minutes ago.**

"**ELLLLLLLLAAAAAA," Troy whined, dragging out her name for effect, "Would you please just go and see if they're done yet, so we can get back to drinking and being on the dance floor," he rolled his head onto the back of the sofa, but his pleading eyes never left hers.**

"**Fine," she yelled, already halfway across the room, heading for the stairs as the rest of the gang burst into amused laughter.**

**Gabriella breathed a sigh of relief as she exited the bathroom, luckily Jane and her buddy had been done in the bathroom, so Gabriella had finally managed to go.**

**But as she was walking back along the corridor towards the stairs, a door swung open and a rough hand grabbed her, pulling her inside the room and covering her mouth as she tried frantically to scream for help.**

"**Shut up you little bitch, or I swear I will slit your throat here and now," a sinister voice whispered in her ear, and as she saw a flash of silver, Gabriella nodded her head furiously. "Good," she could literally hear the smirk in her attackers voice as he pushed her violently against the wall, attacking her neck with his lips, biting down hard and starting to remove her clothes as she sobbed in pain and terror.**

**Downstairs, Troy checked his watch and was worried when he noticed that Gabriella had been gone for twenty minutes, and although he knew that it took girls longer than guys in the bathroom, he knew that she should have been back by now.**

**Troy swiftly called all of the guys over, and once he had explained the problem, Chad rapidly informed the rest of the basketball team, those that weren't too intoxicated, and the hunt for their little sister, as she was to the guys, and the rest of the basketball team/ best friend, as she was to the girls/ girlfriend, as she was to Troy, was on.**

**They all promptly split up, the team taking the outside of the house, round the back, while the girls tackled the outside, in the front. The guys started to search the downstairs of the house, while Troy sprinted up the stairs that he had last seen Gabriella go up.**

**On his way along the upstairs hallway, Troy could hear a pair inside one of the bedrooms, and scrunched up his face in disgust, until he heard the girl in the pair whimper, before crying out. His eyes widened as he recognised the cry and he speedily charged towards the door, hearing Gabriella in complete distress.**

**Finding it was locked, he cursed under his breath, hearing Gabriella scream again and the sound of a slap ringing out from the room.**

**Troy found this too much and backed up, speeding towards the door and putting all of his weight against it as he shoulder charged it, and the door was knocked off of its hinges, revealing a petrified looking Gabriella, whose top had been thrown to the side, and who had a long rip running the length of her skirt, as she struggled in the arms of the West High Knights basketball captain, Tyler Beckford, who had her pressed up against a wall and was still trying to force himself on her.**

**Anger flashed in Troy's eyes as he flew forwards, swiftly pulling the captain off of Gabriella, who consequently sunk to the floor, sobbing, and started to punch him repeatedly in the face, throwing in the odd kick now and again for effect.**

"**WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" He yelled breathlessly, his punches intensifying as the rest of the gang and the team all reached the doorway. "YOU SON OF A, HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER IN THAT WAY EVER!" he screamed as Chad, Zeke and Jason ran forward, pulling Troy off of the guy, who was now lying close to unconsciousness. Troy struggled in the guys' arms and nearly got away a few time, before Chad leant in, to make him see sense.**

"**Troy, dude, look at Briella, she needs you right now," Troy's gaze flew to Gabriella, and instantly softened as he saw her curled in a ball, in the corner, trying to protect herself. "Let the team worry about this jerk, if there's more than one of us that gives him what he deserves, he won't dare squeal, but if it's just you, he'll tell the cops in an instant." Troy nodded and walked over to Gabriella, pulling her into a hug, before unbuttoning his shirt and wrapping her in it, sending one last glare at the guy who had even attempted this, as he carried Gabriella from the room and the team all crowded around him, smirking, this guy was going to get exactly what he deserved for even touching their little sister.**

**Sure enough, all that was known of the Beckford after that was that he spent a week in hospital, before he rapidly returned to West High, never daring to so much as step out of place or on East High turf again.**

**End Flashback**

Gabriella and the rest of the gang shuddered as they relived that memory. "I can't believe that he'd do something like that and then stoop so low as to take two little girls away from their home," Kelsi spat, more angry than anyone had ever seen her before.

Gabriella nodded, "Well he almost killed Beckford that time, imagine what he's going to do to him if he finds him now, after he took the girls'." The gang all shuddered again, "I would much rather not have my husband go to jail, if we could help it, so let's go, now," Gabriella finished firmly, reaching for her coat, just as the phone began to ring again.

Everyone held their breath as the phone continued to ring, before Zeke lunged forward to answer it, "Hello," he muttered in confusion, "there's no one there," he said, looking up at the gang, who all looked back at him, even more bewildered, as Gabriella reached over to put the phone on loudspeaker.

"Hello Beckford," Troy's voice rang out loud and clear, as the rest of the gang just gasped and stared at the phone in shock, listening intently, to terrified to move…

**Well guys, that was chapter 11, hope you enjoyed it. Please review and tell me what you thought!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, I am so sorry about the long wait for this chapter, but now that my other story is finished, I'll have more time to concentrate on Returned and finish this as well.**

**Chapter 12**

"How nice of you to join us Troy," Beckford grinned as he walked out from behind a corner, although the girls were nowhere to be found. "Who would've thought that Troy Bolton would have actually had the brains to figure out where my hideout was, and who I was," he chuckled as he stopped still, eyeing Troy up and down as he clenched his fists, his blue eyes darkened in pure anger.

"Well Beckford," Troy growled, "you aren't exactly that hard to figure out, after all, you told me exactly where to find you, and when you sent the note, you had to be idiotic enough to sign it T.B. which meant that Sharpay could figure you out straight away, I mean how much of an idiot do you have to be?" Troy smirked as he watched the anger flood into Tyler's features.

"I'd watch it if I were you Bolton," Tyler spat out, glaring at Troy as neither man moved, just staring at each other from across the room, "I still have the two things that you hold most precious and I could quite easily get the third, as I very nearly did in high school," Tyler laughed, watching as Troy fought hard with himself not to lunge forward.

"Don't you ever dare talk about Gabriella or my girls ever again!" Troy roared, his anger reaching breaking point, "And Beckford, we all know that you lost everything in high school, because you were such an idiot, I mean come on, you were even banned from this place, the West High Knights' hang out, the first person ever in history to be banned I do believe," Troy finished with a harsh laugh, well aware that the rest of the gang were hanging onto every word that he said on the other end of the phone line.

On the other side of Albuquerque, a light bulb went off in four men's heads as they all looked at each other in realisation. "The abandoned warehouse!" Chad, Ryan, Jason and Zeke all breathed out as one, the girls watching them in confusion.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Taylor questioned, glaring at the guys in her confusion, as Chad smirked back, glad that he finally knew more about something than his wife.

"Well," Zeke started, glancing nervously at the people around him, "during high school, the East High basketball team had a hang out, and so did the West High one, but only team members were allowed to know where it was…"

"Which is why none of you girls knew," Jason continued, cutting of the glares that had appeared on all of the girls faces, "The East High one was up by the train tracks and was really nice and everything, as you would expect…" Jason trailed of as he got caught up in past memories and the others rolled their eyes.

"The West High one however," Ryan stopped for a moment, considering what to say, "was a complete and utter dump," the rest of the guys nodded in agreement, "it was an old abandoned warehouse beside the river, which they never even bothered to do up…"

As Ryan trailed off, Chad caught his train of thought, "we know where it is because we all participated in loads of fights there," the guys all cringed at the looks from the girls, "and what I'm now starting to wonder is if that's what Troy meant, cause that's always what they referred to as their hangout."

After a few moments of silence, Gabriella suddenly stood up, startling the whole gang, "Well then, what are we waiting for?" There was iciness in her voice as she walked out of the house towards her car, suddenly on a hell bent on finding her husband and kids, no matter what, the others quickly hurtled out of the door behind her, Kelsi slamming it shut behind them.

Back at the warehouse, Tyler's confidence had returned as he and Troy still took it in turns to torture each other. "Well Bolton, at least I can protect what I love, so far you don't really seem to be doing a very good job of that do you," he laughed harshly as Troy's teeth ground together and his glare intensified, "I mean first, you let me get to Gabriella, another few minutes Bolton, and for all you know, she could have had my child, not yours," he laughed again, and Troy's breathing became increasingly erratic, as his anger grew, "and you hardly kept those precious girls of yours safe either did you? If you had, it would have been damn impossible for me to snatch them," he sneered and suddenly Troy lunged forwards, unable to take it anymore. As he punched Beckford hard, Beckford just laughed, causing Troy to stop and glare at him again.

"What the hell are you laughing at Beckford?" He hissed, anger visible in every feature of his existent.

Beckford just laughed again as leant forward and whispered into Troy's ear, "Look up."

Troy did as he was told and saw two terrified faces looking back down at him, hurt and fear flashing through their features, as they looked directly at him, terrified of their own father.

Troy paled and quickly stood up, his eyes never leaving the two girls as they whimpered and pulled away from the side of the balcony where they were standing, attempting to get away from him, frightened beyond belief.

Troy's face softened as he attempted to get to them, but Beckford just laughed and pulled Troy back down to the floor. "It was only a matter of time Bolton, only a matter of time until you snapped, now look, your two little baby girls are terrified of you, they're going to like me now, the one who saved them from the big, bad Daddy…" Tyler trailed of with a slight laugh as Troy's eyes watered, knowing that what he said was true, and he was going to have to re-earn the trust of the two most precious people in his life…

**Well, that was chapter 12, please review and tell me what you thought, I know that it's only very short, but the next one will be up in the next two days, I promise, it just builds the tension to keep the chapters like this, so please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, thanks to those of you that reviewed the last chapter, like promised, here's chapter 13, please read it and tell me what you think!**

**Chapter 13**

Troy's heart broke as he thought of how terrified his little girls had been when they saw him, his little girls who he had held moments after they were born, his little girls who he had followed around the house, making Gabriella laugh as he suggested wrapping them in bubble wrap when they started to walk, his little Ashley who was one of the feistiest people he knew and would always stand up for what she wanted, his little Vixie who was his best friend, his little buddy, whose first word had been "Dada", his little girls.

Troy just lay there and allowed Tyler to hit him over and over again, too shocked and hurt by the thought of what he had done to his little girls, he had scared them when he had promised to always be there for them and protect them from things like this, not bring them to it and scare them half to death by giving in to violence himself.

"G-d Bolton! Can you not even fight back!" Tyler roared, but when he looked at Troy, he was staring into space, his eyes glassed over, this angered Tyler even more and with another snarl, he kicked Troy across the room.

Two little screams filled the air as Tyler smirked in accomplishment and Troy just lay there, not moving even a muscle.

Unexpectedly, the pitter, patter of two tiny sets of feet could be heard on the metal staircase, as the girls flew down them, running to their Dad, obviously having inherited his athletic abilities.

Ashley was the first to reach Troy and automatically collapsed beside him, reaching out her little hand to touch his face, "Daddy?" She questioned, crying softly, "Daddy, please wake up, please wake up Daddy!" She yelled as she buried her head in the crook of Troy's neck, prying apart his arms and wrapping them around herself, as Troy still lay there, motionless.

Vixie arrived milliseconds later, also collapsing beside her Dad, and taking his hand. "Dada?" She asked softly, her vision blurred due to tears, "Dada, pwease wake up!" She gently shook Troy, placing one thumb in her mouth as she used her other hand to shake her best friend with all of her might, while her sister still cried into his arms.

Vixie sat back on her knees and looked at her Dad and sister, Ashley incapable of doing anything and Troy completely out of it, she gently raised her tiny hand and brushed a strand of Troy's hair out of his eyes, "Dada, pwease wakey, it no time to go nigh nigh yet! Don go bye bye, come bwack!" She started to sob loudly.

Across the room, Beckford rolled his eyes, getting increasingly annoyed with the two girls as he strode over towards them and yanked Vixie into his arms from the floor, before storming over to Troy and ripping Ashley from his arms as she let out an ear piercing scream, loud enough to wake the dead and Vixie's spare hand flew to her ear.

Outside a car flew into the car park and a group of people rushed out of the car towards the building.

Gabriella froze as she heard the scream of her baby, a scream that made her blood run cold as the guys picked up speed towards the warehouse and the girls urged her to keep moving.

Bursting into the warehouse, the guys gasped and instinctively tried to keep the girls out, but being the strong level headed women that they were, they screamed at the guys to move or lose their precious crown jewels, causing the guys to immediately leap out of the way.

When Gabriella rushed in, she stopped in her tracks at the sight before her. Her husband, the love of her life was lying still as a statue on the floor, covered in blood, his eyes closed. Beckford was sat on the edge of the balcony, in front of the railing, rocking side to side, like a maniac, holding one girl in each arm, the girls were watching Gabriella's every move, tears streaming down their faces, screaming for their Mommy's help at the top of their lungs.

Gabriella sank to her knees beside Troy, her eyes focused on her children as the tears dripped from her face and onto Troy's still form. The gang stood behind her, knowing that they were in a lose lose situation, if they tried to get the girls from him, Beckford would jump, if they didn't attempt anything, Beckford would jump.

Feeling the iciness of Gabriella's tears hit his face, mingled with the cries of terror from his children, Troy was starting to slowly regain consciousness. However, when he heard Vixie scream his name, he was up like a shot, causing the whole gang and Gabriella to jump as she through her arms around him, neither parent's eyes leaving their children's faces.

Troy was sat on the stone cold floor, Gabriella's arms wrapped around his torso in terror, both watching the man that could potentially ruin the best thing in their lives, and ruin the rest of their lives forever.

Beckford suddenly noticed the group's eyes on him and looked down at them. Troy could tell in that one look that any sanity he had had left was entirely gone, and he was now most definitely insane, as he continued to rock, eyes locked onto Troy's, a manic smile covering his features.

"Well, well Troy Bolton, look who has the option to ruin whose life now," he laughed manically, causing the whole gang to shudder, and Vixie look up at her captor, her face contorted in terror. "Well you see Bolton, I'm going to give you a choice," his eyes locked back onto Troy's and he laughed again, "I'm going to ask you Bolton, who do you want to save? This one?" He held Ashley out by one arm and the whole gang screamed as he nearly dropped her, he grinned again, "Or this one?" he held Vixie out, only just catching her by the hood of her jacket in time as she screamed in fear. "Your choice Bolton, which of your babies is going to live? And which one are you going to sentence to death?"

**That was chapter 13, I know I said that I wouldn't update until tomorrow, but I really had to get that up, please review and tell me what you thought and 14 should be up tomorrow or the next day.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Returned  
**

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of your reviews! They all mean a lot to me, anyway, here's chapter 14, hope that you enjoy it, please review and tell me what you thought.  
**

**Chapter 14  
**

Troy felt a horrible lump in his throat as he sensed all eyes in the room on him. He looked straight at Tyler, who was smirking uncontrollably by this point, keeping a very tight grip on each of the girls as he eyes never left Troy's once. How could this monster make him choose between his baby girls? Troy would rather die than do something like that.

The gang all stood behind the couple, the girls' hands over their mouths in shock and tears streaming down their faces. The guys were each holding onto their wives/fiancée/sister, tears streaming down their faces as well, as they desperately tried to figure a way out of this mess.

Gabriella stood just behind Troy, her eyes just peeking over his shoulder, fixated on her two baby girls, their faces red and blotchy, the tears still streaming, and all their mother wanted to do was comfort them. Gabriella couldn't tear her eyes away for even a second as she watched her babies, regretting more with each passing moment returning to Albuquerque, if they had stayed in L.A., the girls would be safely at home, playing in the pool or with their dolls at this point in time, not dangling from a balcony fifty feet up, about to tumble to their deaths.

Gabriella was sharply brought back out of her thoughts by an extremely loud shriek from Sharpay, and she immediately looked up to see Beckford grinning, holding Vixie out over the side by the middle of her jacket, her little legs kicking frantically as she looked at her parents, her eyes begging for their help, and as much as Gabriella wanted to turn away, she couldn't.

"Come on Bolton, I haven't got all day, let's get this show on the road! Just tell me which of the midgets you're going to save, and which one you are going to say goodbye to forever," Beckford laughed harshly, and Gabriella felt Troy stiffen up in fear and anger as Vixie was held even further out, letting out a whine of panic. "I'd pick now if I were you Daddy, if you don't, I'll make the lovely decision for you," Beckford laughed again, "and I may just choose not to save either," he grinned at them before he leant forward, holding the scrambling Vixie further away from the railing, as she tried so desperately to reach it, giving a wail of pure terror.

In a flash, Ashley lunged her head forward and bit down hard on Beckford's arm. He let out a scream of agony and jumped to his feet, just grabbing onto the rail in time to steady himself, keeping a tight hold on Vixie though, as she started to wail louder, having nearly just been dropped again.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" He roared at Ashley, as she slowly backed away from him, now on the other side of the railing, before turning and fleeing towards the stairs, desperate to help her sister, but too terrified to stay.

Tyler whirled back around to face the gang as Ashley flew across the floor towards them, flying into Troy's arms and immediately being engulfed in a huge hug by both of her parents, although her eyes never left her sister.

Anger flashed through Tyler's eyes, as he saw the joyous little family reunion, but he smirked when he suddenly realised that all of this had now worked into his favour.

"Hey Bolton!" He yelled, grinning manically and Troy turned back to face him, his eyes instantly finding Vixie's and tearing up, "You ought to thank that little girl of yours," he laughed again, and Troy's blood automatically started to run cold as his eyes bore into Tyler's, trying to figure out what he meant and he let Ashley slip slowly from his eyes. "She just made your choice a whole lot simpler." Troy's breathing became ragged and Gabriella let out a pained cry, before slapping her hand over her mouth. "Now you don't get a choice, she chose for you!" Beckford roared with laughter, stopping suddenly to ponder a thought, "I wonder Bolton, what colour do you think her blood will be? Will it be the same colour as the roses that you'll get to put on her grave? Or will you not bury her at all?"

He laughed again and Chad started to retch, unable to process the thoughts that were running a million miles an hour through his head over what Beckford was going to do to this precious little girl that only thirty nine hours earlier had been patting his hair and calling it 'kitty.'

"DADDY!" Vixie screamed and Troy's heart rate sped up dangerously as he watched his baby girl struggle and squirm in Beckford's arms, tears streaming down her face, while he smirked at Troy, showing him the knife that he held in his right hand and Ashley whimpered, disappearing behind her Dad and burying her face in the back of his leg.

**Well guys, that was chapter 14, please review and tell me what you thought, and chapter 15 should be out tomorrow.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Returned  
**

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of your reviews! I am so sorry that I haven't updated sooner, but school has been a complete nightmare with exams coming up and coursework needing finishing, anyway, I'm off for the next two weeks, so in between revising, I should be able update quite a bit, anyhow, here's chapter 15, hope that you enjoy it, please review and tell me what you thought.  
**

**Chapter 15**

Unable to watch his little girl struggle anymore, Troy tore his eyes away, and stared at the top of Ashley's head, as she stood beside him, glaring at the man that was hurting her baby sister.

Watching her, Troy could see that her gaze was focused completely on Beckford, and as his gaze found the gang and Gabriella, he found that Beckford was also the object of their attention. Glancing back up to Beckford, Troy could now see him staring at the wall straight in front of him, his madness reaching peak as he started to sing to himself, still rocking, while Vixie cried.

Noticing that no ones attention was on him, a plan started to piece together in Troy's mind and he gracefully slipped off to the side without anyone noticing.

Quickly, he broke into a run, gently opening the back doors of the building without a sound and slipping out of them. With the blood pounding in his ears, Troy sprinted towards a rickety old looking staircase on the outside of the building, one which Troy had chased Beckford and other members of the Knights' basketball team up and down dozens of times in high school, when they had tried to run out in the middle of a fight.

As he put one hand on either of the banisters, Troy took a deep breath and looked at the stairs. They had never looked safe in high school, but now, they looked literally as though they would fall to pieces, with steps missing here and there and both banisters wobbling dangerously as Troy leant softly on them.

Taking another deep breath, Troy started to run up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time, in a desperate attempt to be on them as little a time as possible. He gasped as one suddenly gave out beneath his feet, but quickly managed to draw his foot onto the next step, wincing as he heard the metal stair hit the ground.

Luckily though, as he listened carefully, Troy heard no frantic noises coming from inside, a signal to him that it was ok to continue his race up the stairs, and that his attack on Beckford was still going to come as a shock to him.

As soon as Troy reached the top of the stairs, he wrenched open the door and immediately sucked in a breath as he ducked behind a curtain to avoid being seen by Beckford, but Vixie quickly caught his eye, causing Troy to freeze momentarily as he saw her tear stained face and gently shake his head, making her quickly look away again, knowing that soon she would be safe and that her Daddy would rescue her, or so Troy hoped as he watched the scene unfold before him…

**I am so sorry that it's so short, but I will update later on tonight as well, and then hopefully again tomorrow. Hope you liked it, sorry once again for it taking so long, please review and tell me what you thought.**


	16. Chapter 16

Returned

**Returned  
**

**Hiya guys, thanks for all of your reviews! Anyway, as I said I would, here is chapter 16, please read and review! Hope you like it.  
**

**Chapter 16  
**

Troy slowly crept along the far side of the balcony, making sure that he stayed in the shadows, he knew that if any of the gang saw him, they would stop panicking and tell all of the others he was there, alerting Beckford to where he was and ruining his plan instantly so that he'd have no hope at all of saving Vixie.

Vixie however, was a different matter, although she kept kicking and screaming her head off, tears streaming down her face, her eyes were locked with Troy's, and just from looking in his baby girl's eyes, Troy could tell that the screaming and crying had become an act the moment that she saw him on the balcony with her.

Troy wondered about this and knew that he was going to have to watch her in future if she was trying to get something, because for all he knew, it would be an act.

Troy stopped directly behind Beckford and Vixie, his eyes still locked with his daughter, giving her a reassuring smile, as he prepared to launch himself forward, holding up his hand and slowly counting down his fingers, so that she could see exactly when he was going to get her.

The exact moment that he had none of his fingers held up, Vixie stopped screaming and crying, her tears drying instantly as her whole body stilled and she sent a smile at Troy, as if asking if she had done a good job of keeping his presence a secret. Troy grinned back at her and suddenly flung himself forward, coming into view of the whole gang as they all gasped in shock, hands flying up to cover most of the girls' mouths.

Troy grabbed Vixie out of Tyler's lose grip in one swift movement and held her on his far hip, quickly backing away from the edge and holding her so tightly that she almost stopped breathing for a minute. Vixie beamed brightly at him, telling him that she loved him over and over again, while kissing him each time in between, and Troy couldn't help but let out a relieved chuckle, which stopped all too quickly as he saw blood running down both of Vixie's arms, and he quickly lifted her arms, noticing that she had two cuts running from her shoulders down to her elbows.

Troy's eyes flashed with anger as he turned around slowly, glaring at Tyler, who looked back up at the father daughter pair in disgust.

"Well well well, Bolton's the hero again, what a surprise," Tyler, sneered, rolling his eyes at the pair and Vixie buried her head in Troy's shoulder, causing another course of anger rush through Troy's veins. "But you aren't going to get everything you want this time Bolton," Tyler turned back around, once again glaring at the group of people that stood on the ground before him, "Because there is no way that I am going to jail for this, do you know how many people are after my blood in there?" He let out a harsh laugh, looking back at Troy quickly, "Goodbye Bolton, East High's Golden Boy, I'll be seeing you," He laughed again and pushed himself off of the edge, causing more loud screaming to be emitted from the gang and the girls, but his fall was quickly stopped.

"Not a chance Beckford," Troy struggled to hold onto both Tyler and Vixie, and keep them balanced on the platform, and not tumbling to their deaths. "You are going to pay for what you did to my girls, I don't care how many people want your blood in there, you can go through hell in there for all I care, but there is no way I am letting you walk away from this easily," Troy hissed, and Beckford looked up to see both father and daughter wearing the same looks of hatred, annoyance and determination, and instantly knew that there was no way he was getting out of this with suicide, and he was going to have to live up to his punishment.

"Leave me to die Troy, just leave me to die!" Tyler yelled, his eyes pleading with Troy not to send him to prison.

Troy's face hardened and on the ground beneath, Gabriella prayed that he wouldn't do anything stupid. "I don't want to save your life Tyler, but I don't want your death on my conscience either, because unlike you, I am a good person, and I know that I am a good person," Troy spat at him, and Gabriella's heart slowed down a little, as she breathed out a small sigh of relief.

Suddenly, there was a small tinkering sound, as the whole balcony projected forwards, causing Troy to yell and Vixie to scream, as the rickety old balcony finally began to give way, and more screws went clattering to the ground fifty foot below…

**Well that was chapter 16, please review and tell me what you thought, and hopefully the next chapter will be up tomorrow, or possibly later on today.**


	17. Chapter 17

Returned

**Returned**

**Hiya guys, thanks so much for all of your reviews! So, to cut the suspense a little bit, here's chapter 17, please read and review. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Chapter 17**

Troy clung tightly to Vixie as the balcony gave another lurch, and he looked down at Beckford, to make sure that he hadn't let go of him yet, as far as Troy was concerned, he was not going to have a death on his conscience no matter what.

When Troy caught Tyler's eyes with his own, he was shocked at what he saw, pure fear and terror. Tyler had been all talk, he knew that Troy was the good guy, and would come and save him, what he hadn't counted on however, was the balcony giving way, before he could reach safety.

Troy almost felt sorry for Tyler in that instant, but then he remembered what he had done to his family over the years, and the amount of times that Tyler Beckford had tried to destroy his life and fury quickly took over from the slight pity he had felt.

With one sharp tug, Beckford was back up over the railings again, as the screech of metal came, and the two men bolted for the stairs, Troy still carrying Vixie securely in one arm, with his other hand wrapped firmly around Tyler's wrist.

Suddenly though, the balcony gave way beneath them. As the gang watched on in horror, Ashley burying herself deep into her mother's neck, the balcony gave a complete ninety degree turn, and Troy only just managed to grab onto the opposite railing in time to save himself and Vixie, promptly letting got of Tyler, who then grabbed a hold of Troy's leg.

Gabriella closed her eyes in shock, clinging tightly onto Ashley, scared that if she let Ashley go, she would lose both her baby girls', and her soul mate. Gabriella was terrified of being left all alone as she watched half of her family struggle for their lives.

Troy bent over to Vixie, who had her eyes tightly shut. "Vixie, baby girl, I need you to climb around onto my back, just like I'm giving you a piggy back ok?" Troy asked and instantly her bright blue sapphire eyes found his and a look of love, trust and friendship passed between them, as she slowly nodded, clinging tightly onto Troy's jacket, as she manoeuvred herself under his arm, and climbed up his back like a monkey, her two tiny arms just wrapping themselves around Troy's neck, as he heaved the arm that had been holding Vixie up onto the top railing as well, resting his feet on the bottom railing, that was about to fall at any moment and leave them dangling in the air.

Troy gulped as he looked down, taking in the fifty-foot fall, which would infinitely become all of their deaths, if he didn't shift some of the weight as fast as possible.

He looked down, and his eyes once again caught on those of the man that had been his archrival since they were only children. "Please Beckford," Troy pleaded, his eyes filling with tears as he thought of his family, "Please, I'm begging you, please do the decent thing for once in your life, I need to save my little girl Tyler, I can't do that if you're clinging onto my foot, please Tyler, please help me. Please," Troy finished quickly closing his eyes and looking away as one solitary tear fell down his cheek from under his closed eyelid, but it was gently brushed away, and as Troy felt his head being turned, he had to smile softly through his tears, looking him straight in his eye was his little miracle, the little one that shouldn't have ever lived passed her first few hours of life, but who had received her mother's stubbornness and had defied all of the doctors, reaching her third birthday, and as Troy prayed, many more.

"I love you lots and lots Daddy," Vixie whispered softly, her had still on Troy's cheek as she gently kissed it.

"I love you to princess," Troy smiled, before the balcony gave another lurch and Troy quickly shut his eyes as Vixie's hands returned to his neck and she buried her head in the back of his shoulder.

Troy reopened his eyes and looked back down to Beckford, who found his eyes rapidly and gave Troy a swift nod. "Thank you," Troy breathed out, as Beckford hurriedly released Troy's foot, and the gang below screamed at the sight of the falling man, Gabriella protectively tucking Ashley's head into her shoulder, so that she wouldn't see what was going on.

Both Troy and Vixie shivered as they heard the snapping of his bones as he hit the hard concrete floor, and Troy prayed that he and his daughter would not be joining Tyler anytime soon.

Speedily, Troy started to bring one hand over the other, edging himself and Vixie along the balcony to the fortunately still functional stairs.

Troy abruptly came to a stop as the railing on the bottom half of the balcony suddenly gave way, so that he no longer had anywhere to rest his feet, cursing silently, he started moving again, as quickly as he possibly could, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the top railing gave out as well and the oldest and youngest Bolton went crashing to their deaths.

As he saw the end in sight, Troy's breathing became more erratic, and he speeded up as much as he could, desperate to plant his feet firmly on the ground again, and sure that he would never try something like free falling ever in his lifetime.

As soon as he reached the stairs, Troy grabbed Vixie off of his back and held her in a tight embrace, covering her head protectively, with his arm and the side of his coat, as he crouched down as low as possible, while the balcony suddenly went crashing to the ground, watching as the gang ran out of the way of it.

When it was clear, Troy scooped Vixie back up into his arms and raced down the stairs full speed, meeting Gabriella half way as the four Bolton's cried in relief that the ordeal was finally over, and sirens could be heard in the background, thanks to some ingenious thinking from Ryan, and a little bit of technology he liked to call his iphone.

The gang stayed back out of the way as the family took each other in, each thankful that all of the others were safe. However, when Vixie saw Chad, her whole face lit up, as she remembered him from the day at the park.

"KITTY!" She screamed in delight, and everyone laughed with her as she rested safely in Gabriella's arms, holding her hand out to Chad, who unexpectedly found himself beside her, engulfed into a hug that the rest of the gang rapidly joined in, passing the girls between them, each giving them a special hug and kiss, thankful that they were safe at last.

When it was Sharpay's turn to take Vixie from Ryan, she gently bent down beside the small girl first, "Hiya Vixie," she whispered softly, and Vixie and Ashley both eyed her up warily, each remembering her from the day at the park as well. "I just want to say that I'm really really sorry for what happened at the park the other day," Troy smiled softly as he watched Sharpay and his youngest daughter interact, while holding Ashley tightly to himself. "But I was wondering if we could be friends?" Sharpay asked, and the rest of the gang were surprised to hear how shy she actually sounded, "I'll even buy you and Ashley some ice cream?" She finished with more of a question than a statement, and Vixie and Ashley's faces broke into enormous grins as Vixie launched forwards into Sharpay's arms, whose eyes widened in surprise, before she picked the tiny girl up.

"T'is otay, I was gonna fortgive you," Vixie smiled her sweet million dollar smile as Sharpay and the others laughed, causing Ashley to pull a face from where she was now sat in Taylor's arms.

"Liar liar pants on fire!" Ashley suddenly crowed, her whole face lighting up, "You were not gonna forgive her! You said so yourself." Ashley then held her arms out to Sharpay as well, and with one quick nod from Gabriella, Sharpay took her from Taylor.

"Was too!" Vixie yelled, pulling a face at her sister.

"Nuuh!" Ashley yelled back, sticking out her tongue.

Before Vixie could jump in with another retaliation though, Sharpay stepped in.

"Hey guys, I brought you a present!" She suddenly yelled, gaining both girls and the gangs attention, who all looked at her in confusion.

Sharpay gently lowered both girls to the ground, and opened her bag, first of pulling out a small scrap of blanket.

Ashley's face lit up as she saw what Sharpay was holding, "Blankie!" she screamed, instantly snatching her piece of her baby blanket from Sharpay and holding it close to her as she ran back to Gabriella. Next Sharpay turned to Vixie, and pulled out a stuffed eeyore toy, like her sister, Vixie's face instantly brightened, and she flung her arms around Sharpay's neck, before grabbing the stuffed toy and running to her father, who picked her up, and instantly, she put her thumb in her mouth and lay her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes gently.

After talking to the police, each of the gang telling their story of what had happened, they were finally allowed to go home, and they had all decided that they were staying at Troy and Gabriella's, to keep an eye on the couple and the girls, beside that, and it wasn't like they didn't have the room.

The girls were already asleep by the time they had gotten home, so Troy and Gabriella had taken them straight upstairs to the guest room right next door to Troy and Gabriella, not wanting to put the girls in their own room opposite, which still had a bordered up window which was yet to be fixed.

They had then retreated back to their front room to find the gang talking about the day's events. After Troy had recounted everything that had happened before the gang had arrived, occasionally interrupted by a question or a gasp, they all unanimously decided that it had been an extremely long day, and they needed to get some sleep.

It was decided that the three couples would take the remaining three guest rooms, and Ryan would take the couch, mush to his dismay, he eventually settled down though, mumbling about how he needed a girlfriend, so he could get the same privileges as everyone else, while Gabriella giggled softly at him, and Sharpay glared at her brother.

Everyone was sleeping peacefully, until exactly twenty-seven minutes past three the next morning, when a terrified scream rang out through the house, instantly followed by cries of Mommy and Daddy.

Everyone was instantly out of their beds and headed for the guest room where the girls were staying, full speed.

Troy was the first to reach the room and his heart broke as he saw Vixie sat bolt upright in her bed, her little arms held out for him as she sobbed loudly, the tears streaming down her face like a waterfall.

Ashley was sat up beside her and because she was confused and sleepy, she instantly started to wail as well.

Troy slumped down on one side of the bed, pulling both of his girls to him as he rocked gently from side to side, whispering comforting words in their ears and occasionally kissing the tops of their heads, as Vixie's sobs subsided and Ashley fell straight back to sleep.

Troy looked up and saw the whole of the gang staring back at him worriedly, as Gabriella sank onto the bed silently beside him, taking the sleeping Ashley into her own arms.

"Baby girl what happened?" Troy questioned as Vixie buried her head deep into his bare chest, her hands fiddling with the drawstring from his jogging pants.

"I had a bad dweam dat the bad scwawy man was cwuming back," she whimpered and Troy held her more tightly as he looked up at the rest of the gang again.

Troy gently rubbed her back as she looked down to her lap, her hands fiddling with the drawstring still.

"That's never going to happen baby girl, never ever, Mommy and Daddy, and all of your aunts and uncles, we're all here to protect you from any scary bad men, believe me auntie Sharpay will personally hurt anyone who even tries to touch you princess," Gabriella grinned, pushing a strand of her daughters hair out of her face as Vixie emitted a soft giggle at the image of her new aunt Sharpay beating someone up.

Vixie looked up and her crystal blue eyes shone with unshed tears as her eyes met Gabriella's warm chocolate brown ones. "Pwomise?" She asked so softly that had the people in the room not been listening extra carefully, they would have missed it.

Gabriella smiled again, and bent forward, kissing Vixie softly on top of her head, "I promise baby girl, we all promise."

Vixie looked up around her aunts and uncles, who all nodded and her eyes rested on her Daddy, "Pwomise?" she asked again.

"I promise princess, always," Troy also bent down and kissed his daughters forehead. "Do you want to come and stay with me and Mommy tonight?" he questioned and she nodded, so Troy picked up her eeyore toy and started to walk out of the room, back towards his own, Gabriella following at his heels with Ashley as everyone else went back to wherever they were sleeping.

Troy smiled as he watched his three favourite girls in the world, each of them was breathing at the same time, deeply and evenly in a peaceful slumber. As he watched them, Troy couldn't help but wonder what the future would hold for the family of four. He knew that they would be staying a four as Gabriella couldn't have anymore children, but he just wondered what his children would grow up like and how he and Gabriella would handle having two teenagers daughters at one time.

He smiled again as he watched Ashley snuggle deeper into her Mom's side and Vixie gave a small snuffle, burying deep down inside the blankets and turning to Troy, wrapping her arms around him as best as she could.

Troy wrapped his arms around his daughter and drifted of into a peaceful sleep knowing that for the moment, the future looked bright, and he couldn't wait to see what it had in store for the Bolton family…

**Well guys, there's chapter 17, only one more left, please review and tell me what you thought!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Returned**

**Hiya guys! Well it's finally here, the last ever chapter of Returned. I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story, this chapter is dedicated to you, without you, Returned would have ended very quickly, anyway, please read and review for the last time!**

**Chapter 20**

"Girls! Move those butts of yours down the stairs double speed or you're going to be late!" Thirty-seven year old Gabriella Montez yelled up the stairs to her two teenage daughters, still trying to finish tidying up the breakfast dishes, before she had to rush of to work herself.

She smiled as a teenager with bouncing blonde curls spun into the room, her ipod on full blast as she grabbed her bag and grinned cheekily at Gabriella. "Sorry Mom, I was curling my hair and forgot to look at the time," Ashley grinned again, placing her ipod on the counter as she turned back to the stairs, "COME ON VIXIE! I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY! MOVE THAT BUTT OF YOURS OR WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" Gabriella laughed as Ashley listened intently to the muffled reply from upstairs. "OK THEN BUT HURRY! I HAVE TO SEE CHRIS BEFORE THE BELL GOES AND I'M ALREADY RUNNING LATE, I'LL WAIT FOR YOU IN THE CAR," Ashley yelled back in response, Gabriella resisting the urge to cover her ears against her daughter's loud yelling. Ashley turned around grinned once more at Gabriella, before pecking her on the cheek, "I'll see you tonight Mom, it's the monthly get together barbeque today right?"

Gabriella nodded in response with a smile, and Ashley grinned, starting to head for the front door, grabbing her car keys on the way, "Oh and Ashley," Gabriella called and Ashley spun around, her eyes gleaming mischievously, obviously knowing what was coming, "Try to stay away from your Dad, your Uncle Ryan and your Uncle Chad dressed like that would you, they'll kill themselves if they see you like that," Gabriella laughed again as Ashley pouted, tugging slightly on her skirt which ended six inches above her knee and glancing at her off the shoulder top, before shrugging and turning once more and flouncing out of the front door, the slamming of a car door echoing through the house just moments later.

Gabriella laughed slightly as a frazzled looking brunette suddenly ran into the kitchen, sliding over in her socks as she reached up to grab a piece of toast from an amused Gabriella, flashing her a slight smile.

Gabriella smiled back at her more reserved daughter, taking in Vixie's pink, white and black floral print skirt that ended just on her knee and her baby pink wrap around t-shirt with a beam **(What Gabriella wears in Breaking Free)**.

"Why you running so late today baby girl?" Gabriella questioned her seventeen-year-old daughter, as she sat on the floor, toast hanging from her mouth, attempting to pull her shoes on at the same time. Vixie gave a muffled response through her toast and Gabriella laughed, unable to understand a word of what her daughter just said. "In English please sweetie," She grinned and Vixie took the toast from her mouth, grinning up at her Mom with a smile that she had obviously inherited from her father.

"Ashley wouldn't get her butt moving out of our bathroom, so I was sat outside for like a half an hour banging my fists on the door, trying to get in," Vixie laughed, while rolling her dancing eyes and Gabriella laughed with her, a car horn suddenly tooting from outside startling them both. "I better go Mom, before Ashley has an aneurysm or something." Vixie grinned, grabbing her bag and rushing out of the kitchen door.

"3-2-1," Gabriella muttered softly, leaning against the counter opposite the door and right on cue, Vixie appeared back at the kitchen door, smiling sheepishly. "What's up Vix?"

Vixie eyed her Mom up and down, before bursting into another brilliant smile, "I was just wondering if we had to pick any of the little ones up today?" Vixie questioned, her brow furrowing with the question, causing Gabriella to chuckle again.

Gabriella eyed up her daughters naturally crazy curls, that were already starting to break lose from their high pony tail stance and tumble their way down her back, "Yes Vix, that would be great if you could, just bring everyone straight back here for the barbecue."

Vixie nodded before stopping, her brow furrowing again, "But Mom, we don't have enough room for everyone in the car!" She cried frantically, ever the worrier and Gabriella laughed again, holding out the keys to her own car for her daughter, who snatched them eagerly.

"If you and Zac could do the run around to the middle school and the elementary school, in the big car and then Ashley and Chris can just bring the other two back here from the high school in her small car, hmm, but then I have no way of getting to work," Gabriella frowned, trying to figure out a solution as Vixie quickly text Ashley to tell her just to go.

"Well Mom, you could phone Aunt Taylor to come pick you up instead, considering she lives two doors down and has to go the school anyway," both women winced slightly at the squeal of brakes, signalling Ashley's departure.

Gabriella nodded her head and reached for the phone, as Vixie turned to rush out of the door.

"Vixie!" Gabriella yelled, covering the mouthpiece as Vixie turned back around to look at her again, "Good luck with your audition today baby girl, you'll be great," Gabriella smiled warmly at Vixie who nodded and chewed her lip nervously, before turning and fleeing towards the car, and school, reminding Gabriella an awful lot of herself in high school.

As she walked into school, Vixie smiled, just like her mother in every way, Vixie loved school; she loved all of her lessons and was pretty much the genius of the school. However, she still couldn't wait to graduate in the spring with her sister and their friends, after having skipped the first grade and been with Ashley ever since.

Once she had picked up her books from her locker, Vixie made her usual detour from homeroom to go and meet her sister and their friends at her locker.

Reaching the locker, Vixie had to pull a face at the image of her sister and her boyfriend, Chris, making out against Ashley's locker, while all of their friends were yelling at them to stop and Lucy was screaming at them to not use their tongues.

Vixie had to giggle at the sight, and the whole gang of seven people broke apart to look at her, Ashley and Chris grinning at her as well.

Suddenly though, their grins all turned to smirks, and Vixie's forehead creased as she tried to figure out what they were planning, before she felt herself being lifted into the air and spun around, as she squealed, and she could hear someone else laughing.

"Zachary Nathaniel Tennant! That wasn't even funny!" She yelled as she turned around and hit her best friend turned boyfriend square in the chest, glaring at him.

"But you love me though," Zac pouted as she rolled her eyes, and he grinned, bending down to kiss her softly.

"Ewwww!" Ashley shrieked and the pair turned to look at her, "Zac I swear to G-d please don't do that to my little sister in front of me!"

Both Zac and Vixie raised their eyebrows, looking at each other and then bursting into laughter at just how hypocritical Ashley could be some times.

"Guys can we please get to homeroom before Lady dragon breath gives us detention again," Phil sighed dramatically, spinning his basketball on his finger as he slung his spare arm around his own girlfriend Zoey's shoulders. The others all looked at each other before heading of to room nine.

"I can't believe that she still works her, I mean she's got to be like ninety by now!" Nicole yelled and quickly Harry covered her mouth as the other seven laughed at the pair who then started to bicker.

"I know, I think that Uncle Jason nearly had heart failure when I told him that she still worked here," Ashley grinned, looking at her sister for back up.

"Yep, but Uncle Chad's reaction when I told him who we had for homeroom in freshman year was priceless," Vixie grinned back. "I believe he called her the Darbus dragon, a very rare but scary species indeed." The rest of the gang roared with laughter, but froze when they heard heavy breathing behind them.

Slowly turning around, they all gulped. "Hi Mrs D, what's up?" Chris asked lightly as they started to back away slowly.

"RUN!" Zac and Vixie yelled at the same time and everyone turned and started to sprint down the corridor, crashing into laughing bystanders as they ran, used to this now being a part of their morning routine.

Standing just around a corner, Troy, Chad, Ryan and Kelsi all chuckled. "Do they remind you guys of anyone?" Kelsi asked, her eyes sparkling.

"They're just like our group in high school, only with more girls than boys," Troy managed to choke out through his laughter.

Suddenly the bell rang and the group of adults grinned their goodbyes to each other, before retreating to their own classes for the morning, Troy and Chad heading for the same ones.

As she sat in homeroom studying her pink detention slip for the following night, Vixie had to sigh, as much as she loved her friends, they were a bunch of troublemakers, but that was why she loved them all.

A scrunched up paper ball landed on her desk and she looked up to see Ashley staring at her, concern showing in her eyes. Just by looking at her, Vixie could tell that she was asking if she was ok, as the sisters shared an extremely close bond, even though they were both so different from one another, one of the main differences being how hot headed Ashley was, compared to how patient Vixie was, so she just grinned at her, before turning back to one of Mrs Darbus' extremely boring theatre lectures.

She glanced around the class, her eyes resting on each of her friends.

First of all, her eyes landed on Nicole, the seat closest to the door, Vixie counted her as the lucky one. She was scribbling away on her sheet of paper, a look of pure determination on her face that instantly told Vixie that Nicole wasn't messing around, if anything, she would be writing a new song for the upcoming show that she had written herself. Nicole was the quiet and shy one of the group, their little composer, a major part in the drama club. Nicole reminded Vixie a lot of her Aunt Kelsi, a lot of their characteristics were similar.

Two desks behind Nicole, sat Chris, a major player on both the basketball team and the swim team. Currently he had his eyes downwards, and Vixie could just see the book that he was reading. A recipe book undoubtedly, he even worked in her Uncle Zeke's bakery part time. As far as Vixie was concerned, he was her future brother in law, she believed, after having watched him and her sister date from the seventh grade, but also, she believed that he was an exact copy of her Uncle Zeke, mannerisms and interests wise, only younger.

One desk over in the row next to Chris sat Harry. Harry was also a major player on the basketball team and a major part of the drama club, having only joined to try and win over his current girlfriend Lucy, yet finding that he actually really enjoyed acting. Harry was also known for asking stupid questions. Frequently. Usually when he went of on one of his rants with a ton of questions, the gang would walk of, rolling their eyes and leave him standing where he was, until Lucy would go back and drag him with her by his shirt. For this, and the reason that he was currently sleeping in class, Vixie thought of him being her Uncle Jason of the group, she just hoped that he would mature as much as her Uncle Jason in the years to follow.

A desk in front of him was Vixie's best friend Lucy, who was currently turned around trying to get her boyfriend to wake up, before Mrs Darbus caught him asleep. Vixie watched the pair in amusement as Lucy hit Harry repeatedly on the head, and Harry tried to swat her of in his sleep, mumbling quietly. For reasons like this, and the reason that you always followed what Lucy said, as she was exceptionally bright, but had refused to move up a grade when she was younger, she reminded Vixie of her Aunt Taylor, the smart, sensible, mature one of the group, also the one who was captain of the scholastic decathlon team.

Sitting directly in front of Lucy was Phil, and Vixie sniggered as she watched his afro bob up and down, as he desperately tried to stay awake, occasionally spinning his basketball that he carried everywhere with him, but stopping whenever the dragon lady turned around. Phil was also probably one of the closest to Vixie in the group, he reminded her wholly of her Uncle Chad, vice captain of the basketball team, and captain of the swim team, but a complete doof who everyone loved. To Vixie he was probably as close to her as her Uncle Chad, as they both looked out for her, no matter what the circumstances.

Two desks across from Phil was Zoey. Zoey was a female Ryan in every way shape and form, she was co-captain of the drama club, along with Ashley, her best friend was Ashley, and the two of them tended to do most of their performances together, and she wore hats all year round, no matter what the weather. However the one major difference between Zoey and Ryan, other than the fact that she was a girl, was that she loved to run track constantly.

Now it came down to two of the people that Vixie cared most about in the world.

A desk in front of Zoey, right in the front row, sat one of the two people who knew every little detail about Vixie, her sister, and her best friend in the whole world. Ashley. Ashley was the one in the group who stood up for what she believed in and would possibly murder anyone who hurt one of her friends, especially her little sister or her boyfriend. She was president of the drama club, and always had a role in the show, whether it was big or small, she wasn't particularly bothered, currently though she was into directing, and she was also one of the stars on the swim team, both girls luckily having inherited their smarts from their mother and their athletic abilities from their father. Both Ashley and Vixie were still extraordinarily close, they didn't share a room anymore, but they were possibly closer than ever and would usually end up falling asleep together in one of the rooms anyway, after spending the earlier portion of the night watching films or just talking, if they weren't out with their friends. Neither of them really remembered what had happened with Beckford, except for Vixie having the odd bad dream about it, but they both knew of what had happened over those few days, and they had formed a bond over that time that was deeper than most other sisters. Vixie tore her gaze away from her sister with a smile, seeing her texting Chris discreetly under her desk, and reminding Vixie of just how much like their Aunt Sharpay she was.

Vixie gaze landed two desks over from Ashley, directly in front of Phil. Her boyfriend. Zac. He was the other one of the two people who knew everything about Vixie, the two had become best friends on her first day of second grade, when Ashley had had to leave her for a minute, and another kid had started to bully Vixie for being so small, Zac had stepped in and stopped them. Just before Vixie's fifteenth birthday and right after his sixteenth, during sophomore year, the gang had finally become fed up with the two of them not revealing their feelings for one another, and had locked them in an empty classroom together overnight. Needless to say, Ashley had been grounded when her parents found out her plan, but it had worked, and they had been a couple ever since. Gabriella had always laughed and told her youngest daughter that history was repeating itself, whenever she saw Vixie, co-captain of the scholastic decathlon team, East High's sweetheart, with Zac, the captain of the basketball team, East High's latest heart throb and golden boy. Zac reminded Vixie a lot of her own Dad, who was still one of her closest friends, he was kind, sweet and wouldn't bully anyone if you paid him to do it. Surprisingly he had a love of drama, but refused to get up on the stage if his co-star was anyone other than Vixie or one of the other girls in the gang, usually for the reason that they would instantly try to get their tongue down his throat if there was a kiss scene. Also extremely competitive, both he and Vixie had a major problem when it came to the two of them racing track together, especially as they were the two captains of the track team.

Last in their group was Vixie herself, exactly like her Mother when it came to schoolwork, but with her Father's love for sports and competitiveness. She also had more of her mother's personality, being extremely stubborn, yet extremely shy at the same time, she was always nervous about getting on a stage and performing, but when she was up there, she was in her element. She loved to perform, whether it be in her academics on the scholastic decathlon team, it be with her sports ability on the track team, or with her singing and acting ability on a stage, she loved it.

As the bell went signalling the end of homeroom, everyone rushed for the door, shoving each other out of the way in an attempt to get away from Mrs Darbus as fast as they possibly could.

Luckily over the course of the day, Ashley had managed to stay away from any of her Uncles or her Father, knowing that they would have made her change straight away, and was currently arguing with who was doing what for the barbecue later on that night, while attempting to put any unneeded books back into her locker, before she could head home.

"Well Mom said that you need to take the two from the high school home Ash, it's only fair!" Vixie whined, glaring at her sister.

"But that means that I have to wait for them and all I want to do is get home!" Ashley whined back, as Chris and Zac tried not to laugh at the two bickering sisters, the rest of the gang having already headed home to get ready for the barbecue.

"Well Ashley, you have a choice, you and Chris can take your car, and take the two home from here, or I can do that, and you and Chris can take the big car and do the run around to the other two schools, bearing in mind that the last time I drove your car I managed to scratch it," Vixie smirked, knowing that she had won the argument as Ashley slammed her locker and pouted.

"Fine," she huffed, before turning to Chris and taking hold of his hand as two freshmen came running up to them.

"Mom said that you guys were driving us home tonight?" 14-year-old Andy Baylor questioned, as beside him, 14-year-old Justin Cross was bent over trying to get his breath back, after having to run the full length of the school at top speeds.

Vixie and Ashley both laughed at the younger two soccer stars and Ashley nodded, "Come on guys, I'm just taking you straight back to ours for the barbecue while Vixie does the run around to the other schools," She grinned at the two who were like younger brothers to her, before turning and walking towards her car, hand in hand with Chris.

"Awww Vixie! Do you have to leave us with those two? They're disgusting when they're together!" Justin moaned, as Zac and Vixie just laughed.

"Sorry guys, but we've gotta go get all the little ones and there simply isn't any room for you two in the car," Vixie explained, an amused smile playing on her lips as the two young boys' pulled a face.

"WOULD YOU TWO HURRY UP OR I'M LEAVING YOU HERE!" Ashley suddenly yelled from the end of the corridor, Chris covering his ears and laughing at the looks on the younger boys' faces, before following Ashley out of the door.

Justin and Andy both sent withering looks at Vixie, before kissing her cheek and rushing out of the door, yelling for Ashley to wait as Zac and Vixie roared with laughter at how funny they looked, barging other seniors and juniors out of the way.

"Ready to do the run around?" Vixie asked, turning to Zac as he took her hand and her books.

"Ready as I'll ever be babe," he grinned back at her and a few cheerleaders further up the corridor sighed, causing Zac to frown and Vixie to cover her mouth to stop a fit of giggles, as they headed for her Mom's car.

"Wanna drive?" She questioned him, holding up the car keys to her Mom's metallic blue Toyota estima, and letting them dangle in the wind as Zac's eyes caught on them and he quickly snatched them away, causing Vixie to burst into another fit of giggles, as he raised his eyebrows at her and released her hand, using his now free arm to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder, carrying her the rest of the way to the car as she kicked and screamed, causing many people to turn and look at them, but to then just turn away laughing, as the couple were known for antics like this by this point in their high school career.

"Where to first m'lady?" Zac asked, a grin once again taking over his features as he bowed while opening the door for Vixie as she giggled.

"Well the elementary school gets out first so I would have to say that we are needed there first kind sir," Vixie grinned, causing Zac to chuckle as she carried on their little game and he shut her door and ran around to the other side of the car.

"And we're off," Zac laughed as Vixie instantly reached forward to change the radio station and he began the short drive to the elementary school 4 blocks away.

Reaching the school the two of them quickly jumped out of the car, realising that they were slightly late for picking up the little ones.

"Ok, I'll go to the fourth and second grade classrooms and get Tai and Sophia, if you hit the kindergarten to get Olivia and Jess, the y love you anyway," Vixie grinned at him before rushing of to find the classrooms she needed as Zac shuddered remembering the time that he had been left to baby sit little Olivia Cross and little Jessica Danforth, as Vixie had had to rush Sophia Baylor of to dance class, and the younger two had decided that they weren't going to cooperate and did not want to go with them. Zac had ended up falling asleep in front of the TV while the then four-year-old girls were playing with their dolls. Vixie and a then 6 year old Sophia had been in fits of hysterics and couldn't look at Zac for weeks afterwards without laughing when they came home to find that the girls had very kindly done his make up and tied his hair up for him while he was asleep.

"ZAC!" Two tiny voices shrieked and he had to grin as he suddenly felt himself land on his back and his face being covered in kisses.

"We thought that you'd forgotten about us!" Olivia wailed, clutching her rag doll tightly under one arm as she refused to get off of Zac.

"We'd never forget about you girls," Zac grinned as he signed the teacher's sheet, saying that they had been picked up, from where he was still lying, while she laughed at him. "Now are you two ready for a barbecue?" Both girls squealed in excitement and let him stand up, instantly holding their arms out to him though, so Zac had no other option, but to pick them up.

As they reached the car, they saw Sophia and Tai fighting over who had to sit with the younger two, while Vixie kept checking her watch, not wanting to be late for picking up either of the middle school kids.

Jess started to struggle when she saw them, and when Zac put her down, she immediately flew across the playground to wrap her arms around her older brother Tai, the middle Danforth, who tried desperately to push her off in disgust as the others all laughed, Sophia leaning back in Vixie as Vixie's arms wrapped around her shoulders.

"Hey missy, you got two legs don't you? Use them," Vixie grinned as she took a giggling Olivia, the youngest of all the gang's kids from Zac and gave her a quick kiss, as she had done with all of the others, before placing her in the back, alongside Jess and Sophia, while Tai buckled himself into the middle, two empty seats either side of him.

"Everyone buckled in?" Zac asked as he glanced in the rear view mirror, greeted by a chorus of yes Zac's, and he started to head the six blocks back the way they had originally come towards the middle school. "Why do I feel like a Dad already?" Zac mumbled under his breath, but Vixie heard and sniggered quietly as she turned around and started to sing songs with the younger ones, in an attempt to keep them amused.

When they arrived at the middle school, all the kids were just coming out, and a boy and a girl suddenly broke into a run for the car, before starting to fight over the door handle.

Zac sighed and turned off the ignition as he slumped in his seat and rolled his head towards Vixie, who was watching the younger two fight in interest, "It's your turn, I did it last week," He grinned as he gently kissed the back of her hand, before she stuck her tongue out at him and quickly got out of the car, moving towards the fighting two, and prying them apart.

"Ok guys, what did I tell you last time?" Vixie asked sternly, greeting a 13-year-old Ally Danforth, and a 12-year-old Reese Cross, who both looked down at the ground in shame, shuffling their feet.

"Don't fight," they both mumbled.

"Very good," Vixie grinned as she opened the door, before hugging them both and gesturing for them to get in.

"Move over dweeb features!" Ally yelled at Tai, trying to get her younger brother to move so that she wouldn't have to climb over him.

"I might have, but not when you were just mean," Tai yelled back, crossing his arms across his chest and going into a huff.

Zac turned around in his seat, eager to get back to the Bolton's house by this point, "Tai man if you move over, Chris, Harry, Phil and I will play basketball with us."

Tai's eyes lit up, "Really?"

Zac grinned back at him and nodded as he instantly moved over, causing both Vixie and Ally to roll their eyes and mumble boys at the same time, before grinning at each other.

Reaching the house, the children all suddenly charged out of the car, yelling for their parents.

Vixie and Zac looked at each other and laughed, before Vixie realised that both Jess and Olivia had fallen asleep in the back, she nudged Zac who just grinned back and picked Jess up out of her car seat, walking towards the house, Vixie following moments later with Olivia.

Quickly spotting her Aunt Kelsi talking to her Mom, Vixie made her way towards them, while Zac headed for the rest of the guys on the basketball court, handing Jess over to Chad, and immediately starting to talk basketball with his two coaches and the other guys from both the old and young gang, as well as the younger boys, ranging from Andy all the way down to Tai.

She carefully handed Olivia over to Kelsi, who thanked Vixie for picking all of the kids up, before she started to greet everyone, her family, before turning back to her Mom. "Are Grams and Grandpa coming home today Mom?"

Gabriella grinned at her and nodded towards the gate, which Jack and Lucille Bolton had suddenly come through.

Vixie grabbed Ashley's arm, pulling her out of her conversation with Ally and Zoey and pointed towards the gate.

Both girls let out excited squeals and flew towards their grandparents, who had recently move to Spain, and who the girls missed a lot. Troy looked up from his conversation, and soon joined his daughters in greeting his parents.

Gabriella smiled softly as she listened to Sharpay interact with Sophia, but watched as the five Bolton's greeted each other, wondering if she the sixth Bolton, should go and join them. However, when she saw Troy's smile, her decision was instantly made and she walked over, him wrapping an arm around her and kissing her as they ignored the sounds of their disgusted daughters, and the laughter of his parents.

Gabriella and Troy both remembered the day that they had told his parents about the girls, and taken them to meet him, it had been exactly one month to the day after their horrific nightmare, and Vixie was still sleeping with her parents, occasionally having the nightmares, but they were slowly starting to stop, whereas Ashley had already moved back into the girls room.

**Flashback**

**Troy was shaking like a leaf as he looked up at the house that he had called home right from infancy. He turned to Gabriella who was sitting beside him in the passenger seat, "I can't do this Ella, I really can't do this," she smiled back at him and gently took his hand.**

"**If you can't do it for yourself Troy, do it for them," Gabriella nodded her head to the two sleeping toddlers in the back of the car, "My side of the family didn't want to know them and that is there loss, my Mom's already dead Troy, and I didn't get to make amends with her, or have her meet her grandkids, please don't put your parents through the same thing. The girls deserve to know part of where they came from." Troy looked at Gabriella and smiled slightly, his eyes shining with tears.**

"**I love you so much Ella," he whispered, as he bent forwards and kissed her lightly, before taking a deep breath and opening the car door, glancing at his old house, before putting his head down and walking slowly up the front path.**

**He slowly raised his hand and rung the doorbell, shocked at just how old his Mom now looked, even though it was only five years later. "May I help you?" she asked, her eyes gradually raising up from the ground and her mouth dropping in shock, before she gave a small shriek and launched herself at Troy, crying and kissing him all over the face, while he scrunched up his face in an attempt to make her stop.**

"**Lucille, what's going on out th-" Jack Bolton was swiftly cut off as he stared at his only son in shock.**

"**Hi Dad," Troy whispered quietly, his gaze meeting that of his father's, as Jack pulled his son in for the first hug between them in over five years.**

"**Troy, I don't, I mean, I… where have you been?" Lucille Bolton eventually asked her son, taking in all of his features as she realised that her son was no longer a boy, but a man in his own right.**

"**Gabriella and I had to leave Mom, it was the only thing that we could do, we were terrified at the way her Mom reacted to something, and so we left, we came back about a month and a half ago, but I couldn't face the two of you until now," Troy stuttered out, he to taking in the features of his aged parents.**

"**Gabriella's still with you?" Jack Bolton questioned his son, his eyes never leaving Troy, as though afraid that if he did, Troy would disappear again.**

**Troy nodded softly and made the signal behind his back for the Gabriella to come and see them.**

**Slowly, Gabriella walked across the street from the car, cradling a still sleeping Vixie in one arm and holding onto a sleepy looking Ashley's hand, who immediately leant onto her Dad's leg when she reached him.**

"**Mom, Dad, you remember Gabriella, and these are our two little girls, Ashley who's four and Vixie who's three," he stated and his parents mouths dropped in shock as Troy waved his arm over his daughters heads, and he and Gabriella prepared for the worst.**

**But Lucille suddenly smiled and bent down next to Ashley, "Hi Ashley," Ashley studied her curiously, knowing that this woman looked quite like her Daddy, but unsure as to why, "I'm your Grandma, it's very nice to meet you," Lucille smiled at her and Ashley smiled back, shaking Lucille's hand when she offered it, "Would you like some chocolate?" Lucille asked her and Ashley looked to both of her nodding parents for permission before grinning back at Lucille.**

"**Yes please," she answered, pushing herself off of Troy's leg and taking a hold of Lucille's hand, following her into the house as the other Bolton's trailed closely behind them.**

**After that, the girls had grown extremely close to both of their grandparents and the family had spent every Sunday afternoon together, up until six months ago, when the oldest Bolton's had moved away to Mallorca.**

**End Flashback**

Troy grinned as he looked around the table, the whole of the old gang was there, along with Ryan's latest girlfriend, all talking about past memories, along with his parents, and about how much everybody had changed since high school, his Dad nearly choking on his salad when he learnt that Mrs Darbus was still teaching.

Whereas down the bottom end of the table, Troy saw the future. The new gang that ruled East High, consisting of his daughters and their friends, talking about their plans for the weekend, and playing games with the younger kids, Ally, Tai and Jess Danforth, Andy and Sophia Baylor, and Justin, Reese, and Olivia Cross.

When he caught Vixie's eye over the top of Olivia's head, Troy had to grin, his little girl might not be so little anymore, but she was always his little girl, and he was going to protect her forever, whether that meant from insane enemies of his, or a broken heart, he would always be there for her.

Hearing the laughter and the talking coming from all around the table, Troy Bolton knew one thing, he would never wish to change a single detail in his life. Ever.

**Well that was chapter 18, the longest chapter I have ever written! I hope that you guys enjoyed Returned, please review for the last time and tell me what you thought.**


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